JUST a month ago, Toyota introduced its relatively revolutionary answer to the growing concern about the use of fossil fuels in motor vehicles.
While the whole country has gone gaga over electric vehicles (EVs), Toyota suddenly unveiled their new (well, not really new, as it has been working on it since the early 2000s) technology: the Beyond Zero H2 hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine.
Now, mind you, hydrogen fuel cell technology or fuel cell technology in general, has been on engineers' tables since the late 1990s. The Japanese didn't think electric cars were the solution to the emission issue they supposedly were meant to solve.
I have written numerous times about the problems that will plague us if and when EVs take the place of regular cars: the additional load on power plants that will inevitably cause them to burn more coal and diesel, the environmental impact of mining for rare earth metals to produce batteries, and the toxic waste generated when millions of EV batteries reach the end of their lifespan.
But there's another issue we have failed to see — an issue that Japanese carmakers may have identified through continuous research.
If the world converts to EVs tomorrow, imagine the number of internal combustion engine factories that would have to shut down.
Yes, shut down. Not retooled, not refurbished, not revamped. But shut down. Why? Because the electric car, while sharing the same body as a regular car, is a completely different animal inside.
It has no engine, so factories that produce them would have to close. It has no regular transmission — just a computer-controlled speed system that directs power to the wheels. So, the transmission plants would also have to close. And with very few moving parts, most of the components traditionally manufactured in auto factories would become obsolete.
What remains is essentially a mobile smartphone integrated into a moving vehicle.
To achieve this, the world would need to dismantle hectares of manufacturing plants, displacing millions of workers not only in the auto industry but also in allied businesses that depend on car and truck assembly.
And for what? So the world can burn more fossil fuels in power plants, devastate forests through rare-earth mining, and struggle to manage the toxic battery waste accumulating near our communities.
I think Toyota's hydrogen-powered car, a Corolla Cross reengineered to run on hydrogen fuel but still using an internal combustion engine, could be the right and immediate solution. It produces no harmful emissions, as hydrogen turns into water after combustion, More so, it preserves the existing infrastructure for assembling motor vehicles.
However, EV battery technology has been advancing rapidly, thanks to Elon Musk making the entire process open source, while hydrogen fuel cell technology lags behind.
Globally and particularly in China, there's a race to develop the best EV battery, overshadowing the need for research into other alternative energy sources for vehicles.
Is this good or bad? Only time will tell. But for now, I've pointed out some real-world issues that deserve attention.