© Reuters. Toyota Motor Corporation’s hydrogen engine racing car driven by the company’s President Akio Toyoda is surrounded by pit crew members during a refueling stop at Okayama International Circuit in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, Japan November 13, 2021. RE
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By Tim Kelly and Maki Shiraki
TOKYO (Reuters) – As U.N. climate conference delegates considered how to save the planet over the weekend in Glasgow, Toyota Motor (NYSE:)’s chief executive was in Japan racing an experimental hydrogen car – a vehicle he says could preserve millions of auto jobs.
The colourful Toyota Corolla Sport that Akio Toyoda steered around the Okayama International Circuit in western Japan was powered by a converted GR Yaris engine running on hydrogen. Making such a powerplant commercially viable could keep internal combustion engines running in a carbon-free world.
“The enemy is carbon, not internal combustion engines. We shouldn’t just focus on one technology but make use of the technologies we already possess,” Toyoda said at the track. “Carbon neutrality is not about one having a single choice, but about keeping options open.”
Toyota’s latest push into hydrogen tech comes as the world’s biggest carmaker joins the rush to win a share of the growing market for battery electric vehicles (BEV) as the world tightens emission regulations to meet carbon-cutting pledges.
Although still only a small portion of vehicles on the road, global electric car registrations in 2020 grew 41% even as the overall car market contracted by almost a sixth, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
By 2025, Toyota plans to have 15 EV models available and is investing $13.5 billion over a decade to expand battery production.
NOT ONLY ELECTRIC
At the gathering in Glasgow, six major carmakers, including General Motors (NYSE:), Ford Motor (NYSE:), Sweden’s Volvo and Daimler AG (DE:)’s Mercedes-Benz signed a declaration to phase out fossil-fuel cars by 2040.
Toyota declined https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/toyota-says-large-parts-world-not-ready-zero-emission-cars-2021-11-11 to join that group, arguing that much of the world is not ready for a shift to EVs. Another notable absence was Germany’s Volkswagen (DE:).
“We don’t want to be seen as an EV maker, but as a carbon-neutral company,” Toyota Vice Chairman Shigeru Hayakawa told Reuters in an interview.
Hayakawa likened the technological choice facing the auto industry to the late 19th century contest that pitted direct current electricity transmission against alternating current. The stakes are high.
“If the adoption of carbon-free fuels happens quickly, that could bring the first battery EV boom to an end,” said Takeshi Miyao, an analyst at auto industry research company Carnorama.
In Japan, where mass layoffs are politically difficult, hydrogen’s allure is that it would cause less disruption than a full switch to EVs. The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association estimates the automotive industry…
Read More: As autos go electric, Toyota chases hydrogen dream By Reuters