Toyota Motor Corp said Saturday it is conducting trials of a vehicle powered by a hydrogen engine in Australia, making it the Japanese automaker's first such test of the environmentally friendly car on public roads toward its commercial use. In the trial from late October through January, a specially modified…
  • FooBarrington@lemmy.worldEnglish
    271·
    1 year ago

    Because Toyota invested a lot into hydrogen instead of EV, and they need to recuperate at least some of it.

    • KᑌᔕᕼIᗩEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      Honestly I’m glad that somebody is exploring other environmentally friendly alternatives too, nothing wrong with having options.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.worldEnglish
        63·
        1 year ago

        Kind of? Hydrogen can be environmentally friendly, but EVs have big advantages:

        • Creating and burning hydrogen is way less efficient than EVs (almost an order of magnitude)
        • Hydrogen is much cheaper to create in environmentally unfriendly ways (using natural gas etc.)
        • Unless we have massive overproduction of power, the additional energy can be better used to de-carbonify other processes with larger impact
        • xenspidey@lemmy.zipEnglish
          41·
          1 year ago

          That’s why generating hydrogen during off-peak hours from a nuclear power plant will be very beneficial. It may be less efficient but way better for the environment then lithium

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.worldEnglish
            33·
            1 year ago

            You still have all the transport and storage costs associated with hydrogen. I’d need to see a study that actually determines the environmental impact of lithium to believe you.

    • Geobloke@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      They’ve invested heavily into a partnership with Panasonic to build solid state batteries too . They hand just spread their risk