this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
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Electric Vehicles
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Japanese automakers sure screwed themselves over by only betting hard on hydrogen. The fuel's limitations were so easy to see early on in the development of the tech. I feel bad for all the workers suffering from the stupid decisions their leaders took.
I half felt that hydrogen was some sort of red herring to get green subsidies without encouraging competition.
Probably a bit tin foil hat of me.
It was absolutely a way to show they were working on green technologies that likely wouldn't pan out. There was very little adoption in the mid-2000s and they persisted over a decade later trying to push the same fuel with no infrastructure in place. It was designed to flop.
Yeah it always surprised me that a country with so many nuclear power stations would not go head first into electric cars
That was the Japanese government pushing a national industrial agenda.
What limitations were you thinking of?
Two things. Hydrogen is mostly refined from hydrocarbons at the moment so it basically doesn't break dependency on fossil fuels. I know greener alternatives like electrolysis is a thing but it's far more energy intensive a process. The second thing is that the hydrogen molecule is tiny. It can easily leak out of containers and lines which not only causes gradual fuel loss but can pose a significant fire hazard.
Thank you!