Japan is trying to make a positive impact on the environment. Every vehicle manufacturer company wants to cover compliance with environmental standards, and the automotive industry is facing difficult situations like reducing carbon emissions and making the future more sustainable. Three major Japanese companies – Toyota, Mazda and Subaru – are teaming up to come up with cleaner and more efficient solutions sooner. How are they doing this? These companies have decided to stop their electric vehicles projects and start developing a hybrid technology.
Many companies are putting their faith in hydrogen engines, but this Japanese team’s alternative will be more realistic for the energy transition the world is experiencing. So, let’s see more in detail the reason for these companies’ decision.
No more polluting fuels
The world is trying to deal with climate change and environmental issues, that’s why the automotive industry is changing the way it works to protect our planet as much as possible. How are they doing it? They are removing traditional engines, like gasoline or diesel, from their cars because they are fuels that pollute so much. Instead, companies are making electric or hydrogen engines, which are way cleaner than fossil fuels.
Three Japanese companies have the leading role on this article: Toyota, Mazda and Subaru. They are teaming up and coming up with new ways of manufacturing their vehicles without polluting so much.
Hydrogen engines
As it’s mentioned in its name, these engines use hydrogen as fuel instead of gasoline. Hydrogen doesn’t produce any smoke nor damaging gas, it just emits water vapor which is the cleanest energy possible to use in transports.
Toyota is a Japanese company known for its investment on this type of engine. They do believe hydrogen is so powerful that it can move large vehicles, like lorries or even planes. Normally, these means of transport weigh a lot because of the use of batteries, but with the incorporation of hydrogen engines this won’t be any trouble.
Japanese alliance
In 2024, Toyota announced the alliance with other two Japanese companies, Mazda and Subaru. The aim of this team is to create the cleanest engine possible by making the most of each company experience in the automotive industry, and developing electric and hybrid engine solutions.
This alliance doesn’t mean they are forgetting about hydrogen and synthetic fuels, but what they want to do now is to use the technology used in traditional engines in a more efficient way and without damaging so much our planet Earth.
The environment will be thankful
It is known the environment is not in its best condition, global warming is changing the natural process of nature and one of the reasons for this result is the means of transport. We have been using gasoline and diesel vehicles for so many years that all the polluting emissions have damaged our planet. If institutions, companies and us don’t do anything about it, there will be irreversible climate change effects.
That’s why the Japanese alliance between Toyota, Mazda and Subaru is seen as a representation of what every country should do: rowing in the same direction.
Challenges
As with everything in life, this has some difficulties regarding people owning these clean engine vehicles. Let’s see what challenges the companies are facing:
- Lack of charging stations: if you own an electric or hydrogen car, where would you charge it? There are almost no charging stations, so this would make people not want to buy these cars.
- Price: these high technology and clean engine cars are very expensive, so most people couldn’t afford them.
- Government support: companies can develop so many types of clean vehicles, but if the government is not doing its part, this effort is for nothing. The government can build more charging stations or even give people incentives to buy them.
It’s remarkable that all the companies around the world are making it. The energy transition is getting stronger and it could be most seen in the automotive industry. However, this would mean nothing if the government is not helping society and companies to increase the number of clean vehicles on the road. What do you think about this Japanese initiative?