Automobile is a technology and a business, and Toyota knows it better than anyone else. Of course, the reality that pure electric cars can have today is formed under the influence of technology, situation, policies and other aspects, and Tesla is more like a "catalyst".

Automobile is a technology and a business. Toyota knows better than anyone else.

may not be Tesla disclosed a series of patents such as battery management systems in 2014, and the pure electric car market will not rise so rapidly. Of course, the reality that pure electric cars can have today is formed under the influence of technology, situation, policies and other aspects, and Tesla is more like a "catalyst".

Just one year after Tesla disclosed its patent for pure electric vehicles, Toyota also disclosed 5,680 patents related to new energy vehicle , including hybrid vehicle , plug-in hybrid vehicle, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle , which has been devoted to studying for more than 20 years. Although Toyota and Tesla are not much different in the time when they publish their patents, the two auto companies have a very different influence in the current new energy vehicle market. In particular, the market share of pure electric vehicles and hydrogen energy vehicles is not the same as the same magnitude at all. Could it be that all this comes from Toyota's too high threshold for hydrogen-energy vehicles? After Toyota

, which is "both repaired inside and outside", disclosed the patent of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, Toyota quickly pushed the first generation MIRAI (the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel vehicle ) to the local and overseas household car markets. Combined with the government subsidies in Japan at that time, the price of the first generation of MIRAI was about 300,000 yuan. Although MIRAI's price is within affordable range of most consumers under subsidies, not the hydrogen refueling stations everywhere limit the use environment of this car. Since its launch, only 20,000 units have been delivered worldwide.

In order to further expand the influence of Toyota hydrogen fuel vehicles, when an important domestic official visited Japan in 2018, when visiting the Toyota Motor factory in Hokkaido , Toyota Akio spent half an hour explaining the performance and prospects of hydrogen fuel vehicles. At this time, Toyota has already pinned its hope of promoting hydrogen-energy vehicles on China, the world's largest automobile market.

Immediately afterwards, in 2019, Toyota Akio came to Tsinghua University . In addition to giving lectures to a group of top students in China, Toyota also officially signed a contract with Tsinghua University to establish a research institute to develop new technologies such as hydrogen energy. In the same year, Toyota once again opened the patent rights for vehicle electrification technologies such as motors, electronic control (PCU), and system control. accounts for the majority of them.

Compared with Tesla's published patents, Toyota is obviously more dedicated to the promotion of hydrogen energy vehicles, and has also correctly chosen China's huge automobile market, but has little effect.

There are too many things that hydrogen energy vehicles need to overturn

Compared with the popularity of launching the first generation of Prius , MIRAI has not reached the replica at all. As new energy vehicles launched by Toyota in different eras, the market situations of the two cars are very different. The reason is that Prius, as a hybrid model, can essentially rely on the fuel vehicle market, while MIRAI, as a hydrogen-energy vehicle, needs more hydrogen refueling stations and hydrogen production factories. Furthermore, after years of development, hybrid vehicle can already make the price low enough, while the price of hydrogen-energy vehicles is still unfamiliar. Even if Toyota can reduce the cost of automotive hydrogen fuel cells from US$1 million to US$50,000, a drop of up to 95%.

Toyota took more than 20 years to launch its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Even if there are free patents available now, how many car companies dare to transform immediately, or some companies use 0 to 1 to join.

The development of hydrogen energy vehicles requires collective transformation of the entire automobile industry. Fortunately, the country has begun large-scale plans for hydrogen production and hydrogen refueling stations. What Toyota needs is not only cooperation with the national level, but also to establish good relations with various car companies.

As long as the development of hydrogen energy vehicles can run, there will be not so many difficulties.