this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Futurology
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Some people might scoff at the 2027/28 timeline, but I doubt this is vaporware. Toyota is the world's biggest car maker, so their claims have some credibility.
Toyota's breakthrough is with mass-producing these types of batteries, they still face challenges in real world use - "Problems include the extreme sensitivity of the batteries to moisture and oxygen, as well as the mechanical pressure needed to hold them together to prevent the formation of dendrites, the metal filaments that can cause short circuits."
It's not vaporware, it's anti-EV FUD.
Don't buy one of those EVs, we're going to have much better EVs really soon now and you'll be stuck with something inferior. Same with their talk about hydrogen: EVs are just a fad, hydrogen is the future! ... and it'll be viable real soon now, so stick with gasoline until then!
Toyota is constantly in the news about battery advancements or hydrogen because it's defensive FUD to protect their fossil fuel vehicle sales.
Yeah this type of news makes people think current EVs are not enough and need to stick with gas. The realistic approach would be to be relying on consistent charging network that people can plug into for long periods of time and there needs to be more than two chargers per location. Yet right now people don't realize the necessary infrastructure upgrades to make our live more green and viable.
Current EVs are not enough. Charging the car for long periods of time each day is out of the question for most of the people in my city.
Also, bullshit on the "more green and viable". Getting rid of cars altogether does that. Not switching to EVs. It's a badaid solution.
They're also funding a liquid anhydrous ammonia powered car, as if hydrogen wasn't a terrible enough idea, let's power a car with an incredibly toxic chemical that has to be stored cryogenically or under pressure. What could go wrong?
Let's power a car with a battery that burns so hot and so persistently, that piercing said battery caused firefighters not to bother with extinguishing the car at all.
Let's power a car with a fuel refined from oil extracted at the cost to the environment. Burning it will also cause excessive emissions. Also it will be extremely volatile so the infrastructure to move the fuel and refuel the vehicle will need to be monitored at every point, and it requires fuel to be cooled down to very low temps when it's hot outside.
Let's power a car with natural gas. It's an incredibly toxic chemical that needs to be stored under pressure. It also makes it so you can't park in underground parking since it malfunctioning can lead to people suffocating, or an entire building exploding.
You can always make something sound bad.
Easy.
Inherently unstable vehicles that can crash on minor surface imperfections or naturally occurring phenomena (leaves, ice) causing injury or death. There is no comprehensive licencing regimes or safety inspections so any child can be on one of these deathtraps risking injury or death at any moment.
The size of the company making the claim has no correlation to the veracity of the claim.
BP, Exxon, Shell spent decades claiming global warming wasn't real.
Philip Morris & British American Tobacco spent decades telling us smoking didnt cause cancer.
All of whom are or were as large as Toyota.
Look at their track record and judge their words against their actions.
Toyota has spent considerable sums over many years campaigning against Electric Vehicles.
https://electrek.co/2021/09/22/toyota-facing-boycotts-over-fight-slow-electric-vehicle-progress/
So should you believe a company that says it's about to table the next huge EV breakthrough when it fouht tooth and nail to slow that transition ?
Your choice, but I won't until I see something more substantial than press releases
Also look at thier pathetic EV offerings at the moment: they're obviously still in the "build compliance EVs until the hydrogen ones are ready" mindset: https://youtu.be/yOeDJ7s_LCc
They'd be better off if they just took an off the shelf battery pack and put it in the muria instead of a hydrogen fuel cell...
I don't think it's vaporware, but they keep pushing the timeline. Years ago there was advancements and we were going to see it in 2026. Now it's 2027/28. In 26 it'll be 29/30
They'll get there eventually, the tech is real, it's just super new tech at scale is hard.
I doubt they're using pressure to prevent the dendrites. Honda figured out a while back to separate the parts in some sort of polyplastic mix of some sort in order to prevent the formation. I bet toyota is also going more that route.
I don't think time affects a companies ability to reinvent physics. At the end of the day you are limited by the laws of nature