| Hydrogen makes a bit of sense on in Japan. You've got an island - people aren't driving their cars to other countries from Japan so you can build out the entirety of the refuting system with a smaller area (the long axis of Japan is comparable in distance from San Diego to Seattle - https://acme.com/same_scale/#41.30257,-121.06934,38.07404,13... ). The second thing about being on an island is that importing oil is expensive. So, the problem of energy storage for vehicles... plugins are one option. Hydrogen is another. Hydrogen is still something that they're looking at for Japan and it makes sense in that environment. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/toyota-ramps-up-efforts-to-l... I'll also point out in that article: > Toyota started working on the development of fuel-cell vehicles — where hydrogen from a tank mixes with oxygen, producing electricity — back in 1992. In 2014, it launched the Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell sedan. The business says its fuel cell vehicles emit “nothing but water from the tailpipe.” Consider where the high capacity battery technology in '92 was. For cars the Galapagos effect on cars gives us a hydrogen fuel cell focus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galápagos_syndrome I don't believe the research into fuel cell designs for Japanese car makers was a mistake and it likely is still a good idea for Japan and other island countries to have a hydrogen refueling system. |