It was only very recently that Toyota announced that their first BEV models would be available, and that isn’t until 2022, and that vehicle, called the bZ4X -yes the first letter is lower case- is a partnership with Subaru. I haven’t heard anything new for a while about it. And going to Toyota’s website they still mention what they call “FCEV’s” for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles- Hydrogen powered cars. The advantage to FCEV’s is that they are essentially highly modified ICE engines that burn hydrogen which doesn’t produce much if any CO2 when burned. The difficulty is transporting hydrogen fuel is a pain in the butt, hydrogen is the smallest molecule in existence and creating seals to keep it from leaking is hard. Right now, you don’t stop it you only slow the leak down. Using pipelines to transport it has all the problems with leaks and potential problems with explosions from those leaks, or you try lowering the temperature of the fuel but that takes energy or you generate the hydrogen locally, which takes significant electrical power. Power most towns don’t have access to. Japan, as a country, is roughly the size of California. A few centralized plants to manufacture hydrogen and refrigerated tankers could possibly work. In the US tankers probably aren’t a viable option in the west, at least.
jalopnik.com
