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NPR: Japan Is Betting Big On The Future Of Hydrogen Cars

Discussion in 'Fuel Cell Vehicles' started by cwerdna, Mar 20, 2019.

  1. orenji

    orenji Senior Member

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    When is the Y coming? Need it as no one wants sedans anymore. Need to keep up with Jones.
     
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i'm waiting for the model 5
     
  3. orenji

    orenji Senior Member

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    The 5? You have a long wait. They need to use all 24 letters of the alphabet first!
     
  4. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    The "Y" designation & all the alphabet have been reassigned.

    A-Zteslas.jpg

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  5. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    If you believe Model Y Ordering FAQ | Tesla
    Knowing how Tesla's often late and makes their more/most expensive versions available first... And, given what happened w/the 3 SR: supposed to have been available to order Nov 2017 and available not long after that but actually wasn't available to order until late Feb 2019 and didn't actually ship until mid-April 2019...
     
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  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    thanks. looks awfully small to be stuffing 7 seats into.
     
  7. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Keep in that batteries and motors take up less space than engine, exhaust and fuel tank.

    More importantly, the wheelbase will likely be the same as the Model 3's, which is two inches longer than the Camry's and an inch longer than the new Highlander.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yeah, it must be larger than it looks
     
  9. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    While the Model 3 has the longer wheelbase, the Camry and Highlander are longer overall.
    I'm thinking the Model Y will have better legroom for the back rows than the Highlander, but will have compact SUV cargo space with the third row up, though there is the front trunk. Third row head room might be an issue, but if you regularly need to sit 7, a minivan would be best.
     
  10. drash

    drash Senior Member

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    I had an awful lot of questions for those statements when I read that article. Like how does the Prius Prime fit into that? Did they include that battery capacity (8.8 kWH) with the hybrids or take it away from the EVs? And does that 1.5 million hybrids include NiMH battery capacity or is it just Lithium battery based hybrids? That’s a large number of hybrid vehicles produced so I’d assume it includes NiMH battery base hybrids which leads me to another question. Are they thinking about NiMH based EVs? That doesn’t even seem reality based although they have pursued the NiMH battery technology pretty much alone in the industry and have made pretty good strides.


    Unsupervised!
    iPhone ?
     
  11. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    a ½ truth is true, but it's not necessarily the whole story. It makes sense - that if it takes 6X-10X as much battery capacity to make a pure EV as it does a plug-in hybrid - & a manufacturer doesn't have a big enough lithium supplier lined up, that you'd still want to make sales with whatever you got. In this case - it might just be that the "whatever-you-got" is really great, & it sells, & it's profitable. That especially works, especially if you don't have a bigger battery manufacturer lined up for another product anyways. If something like that were true, there's no need for Toyota to run that ½ if the scenario up the flagpole.
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  12. noonm

    noonm Senior Member

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    Never been to Japan, so I don't know their vehicle situation, but where do they park their cars? Even if you live in an apartment building, as long as you have access to, or can install, an outlet and/or EVSE, then an EV is feasible.

    I would say the better anti-EV argument in Japan is that they are having trouble with keeping up with electricity demand after the post-Fukushima shut down of all their nuclear power plants.
     
  13. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I've been to Japan 6 times to the "mainland" for vacation. As I mentioned in the OP, on my two most recent trips (2015 and 2017), I saw surprisingly few EVs on the road and in the wild. I spent much longer there in 2015.

    Another guy from another forum was there at times that slightly overlapped w/mine. He had a Leaf and now has an e-Golf. He also observed very few EVs in the wild in Japan.

    I see WAY WAY more in my part of the SF Bay Area than I did in Japan.

    In Tokyo, many people live in high rise buildings. I don't know where they park, if it all. https://www.realestate-tokyo.com/buy/high-rise/ and https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/tokyo-japan-high-rise-apartment.html (found via a quick Google search) can give you an idea. You wouldn't really want a car in/around Tokyo anyway. There's almost no place to park and public transportation via subway and commuter rail is excellent. The bus system is also very extensive.

    Seems like my EV spotting tended tended to be in more rural areas. I recall seeing one EV in Beppu (WAY far away from Tokyo) and not a large city.

    Also, I've seen car elevators (seems like the Japanese may call it "mechanical parking") in major cities like Tokyo and even ones not so big like Nagasaki. Examples.


    Intelligent Parking Systems in Japan - Japan Retail News - Inside consuming Japan - Trends, Products, People, Tech - Market Entry Japan
    خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏ - I stayed at a hotel near here before.

    My hypothesis and that of the other guy was that perhaps in a big city in Japan, it's hard enough to find or get parking, let alone with charging vs. someone living in a more rural, more suburban and less densely populated area.
     
  14. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Considering how big the automotive Market is, it seems like NPR ought to worry most about what China is doing. China is mostly betting big on all electric. That's why Toyota is being forced back into the ev market. No pluggy .... No sellie

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