| > Toyota should've been all over this back in 2015. METI (the Japanese Ministry that develops Japan's R&D strategy) is hesitant about using lithium ion battery technology due to lithium dependency issues and memories about the impact the 1970s oil shock had on Japan [0][1], along with IP issues. This is why Japan has been pushing it's domestic champions to research Hydrogen Fuel Cells [2] and solid state batteries [3] This is also the strategy that Toyota adopted [4][5]. [0] - https://www.sojitz.com/history/en/era/05/ [1] - https://www.ide.go.jp/library/English/Publish/Periodicals/De... [2] - https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/enecho/shoene_shinene/suiso... [3] - https://www.meti.go.jp/english/report/pdf/0520_001a.pdf [4] - https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/39330548.html [5] - https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/39330500.html |
And natural gas; it's clear from https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/enecho/shoene_shinene/suiso... that the plan is to get hydrogen from natural gas, with electrolysis as a thin renewable figleaf over the issue of CO2 emissions.
(don't trust any source that describes hydrogen as an "energy source". There is no naturally occurring hydrogen reserve. It is not a source.)
They might be in a better place if TEPCO hadn't messed up their nuclear plant designs in a tsunami zone.