[DicKy]

Originally Posted by aashishnb

From a purely geo-political perspective, going full BEV would mean replacing OPEC 'dadagiri' with China 'dadagiri'. OPEC atleast had multiple countries.....
....Japan, amongst other countries (including India, most of SE Asia & Australia), is on the other side of the table. Why would Toyota, or for that matter any car company worth its salt, go to be slaughtered or held to ransom (look at current chip shortage for eg)? The reason is 'green/clean' is the buzzword that's giving a higher market valuation today (look at Toyota, VW & Tesla market capitalisation vs their sales). Therefore, everyone has to make the right noises to keep the share prices high. Thankfully, Toyota doesn't seem to be having that compulsion.

True. Refrained from making the point as it would end up being seen as political.

A whole shift to BEVs using lithion ion battery is like walking straight into China's influence (not that the present scenario is better). There is a good reason why Japan and South Korea are pushing hard for hydrogen energy as a whole, not just for vehicles. Funny thing is that, China too is betting heavily on the hydorgen fool cells.

While Toyota maybe pushing for FCEVs, they know for the fact that BEVs are best for city usage and small cars. They maybe waiting for solid state battery tech to mature, given their sheer scale of volumes.

[Hayek]

Certainly not a good place for Toyota to be. You have The NY Times citing them as working to delay clean cars

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/25/c...smid=url-share

and linking this with how they supported the Trump administration in its attempt to overturn California clean air regulations a couple of years ago.

Behind that position is a business quandary: Even as other automakers have embraced electric cars, Toyota bet its future on the development of hydrogen fuel cells — a costlier technology that has fallen far behind electric batteries — with greater use of hybrids in the near term. That means a rapid shift from gasoline to electric on the roads could be devastating for the company’s market share and bottom line.

Very clearly, Toyota screwed up badly in its technological choices on the path to emission free vehicles. And now they are trying (unlike every other major auto maker) to delay electric adoption to give themselves time to either adapt or to develop a Hydrogen ecosystem.

Amazingly, they seem to have remained stuck with their heads buried in the sand even as folks like VW, GM and Ford pivoted towards EVs.

So sad that the pioneer in clean tech has come to this pass.

Wonder if this is something fundamental about how Japanese culture has shaped up in the last two decades. I would have never imagined that there would be such a mess on the Tokyo Olympics, or that Honda would be reaching the bottom of the barrel in JD Power rankings, or that Toyota would completely miss the EV revolution