The EU plan for a new EV monopoly by 2035 will falter as China’s sales push gains momentum. Will Brussels dilute its green transition, or risk its flagship industry?
I find it a wild take to think that the 5% (or fewer?) “special” people will be enough to sustain a completely new, separate refueling network. If anything, these people may switch from gas/diesel to EVs a little later.
EV charging infrastructure has a big potential to become a lot more flexible than whatever refueling infrastructure would allow, e.g. inductive charging, maybe even on the road, is likely to become a thing; battery swapping will become a thing at least within standardized fleets; on-car solar panels may start producing enough energy to allow typical daily commutes; … Over time, all that will ease pressure on the grid. Add in the requisite grid upgrades and Job’s your juncle.
Economics is usually the all-overriding factor. Green hydrogen has a built-in price multiplier in comparison to electricity because it’s based on electricity but adds a bunch of extra inefficiencies in both production and in usage. And the cars are more expensive and much more intricate too. Apparently, in regular use-type situations like buses, current fuel cell designs even need to be replaced every 3 or so years.
Toyota can’t make all of the inefficiencies go away. Even less so if Japan continues to produce its hydrogen from Australian coal. Toyota has had a couple of failed bets (H2, solid-state batteries), to the degree that they’re now so incapable in future tech, they need BYD to help produce models for the Chinese market. In RoW, they needed to go all-in on a 20-year-old technology that has extremely questionable decarbonization potential (gas hybrids).
Other Japanese car manufacturers are also seeing their market share eroded in China and iirc, Mitsubishi even left the market outright. Meanwhile, German companies with their expensive and lackluster but workable EVs are at least doing ok-ish there.
I find it a wild take to think that the 5% (or fewer?) “special” people will be enough to sustain a completely new, separate refueling network. If anything, these people may switch from gas/diesel to EVs a little later.
EV charging infrastructure has a big potential to become a lot more flexible than whatever refueling infrastructure would allow, e.g. inductive charging, maybe even on the road, is likely to become a thing; battery swapping will become a thing at least within standardized fleets; on-car solar panels may start producing enough energy to allow typical daily commutes; … Over time, all that will ease pressure on the grid. Add in the requisite grid upgrades and Job’s your juncle.
Economics is usually the all-overriding factor. Green hydrogen has a built-in price multiplier in comparison to electricity because it’s based on electricity but adds a bunch of extra inefficiencies in both production and in usage. And the cars are more expensive and much more intricate too. Apparently, in regular use-type situations like buses, current fuel cell designs even need to be replaced every 3 or so years.
Toyota can’t make all of the inefficiencies go away. Even less so if Japan continues to produce its hydrogen from Australian coal. Toyota has had a couple of failed bets (H2, solid-state batteries), to the degree that they’re now so incapable in future tech, they need BYD to help produce models for the Chinese market. In RoW, they needed to go all-in on a 20-year-old technology that has extremely questionable decarbonization potential (gas hybrids).
Other Japanese car manufacturers are also seeing their market share eroded in China and iirc, Mitsubishi even left the market outright. Meanwhile, German companies with their expensive and lackluster but workable EVs are at least doing ok-ish there.