Hiroki Nakajima, the Chief Technology Officer of Toyota, has acknowledged the failure of the hydrogen fuel cell car and announced that the production of these vehicles will be abandoned for the time being.
Speaking to Autocar at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2023, the Toyota CTO attributed the failure to establish a network of hydrogen refueling stations to its challenging nature. Therefore, they will focus on hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles instead of passenger cars.
Stating that they will increase the efficiency by 20% and reduce the cost by half with the new generation hydrogen fuel cell they are currently developing, the experienced manager also left the door open for the passenger car version of the cell to be used in electric trucks and heavy vehicles.
Hiroki Nakajima also touched on solid-state battery studies. He stated that the battery, which will be launched in 2027-2028, can only be used in performance-oriented electric vehicles in the first place due to its high cost.