What is Toyota's plan while everyone else goes fully electric? Hope people just prefer a clunky old gas guzzler and high oil prices?
Don't be so arrogant.
It’s not arrogance to point out the obvious cognitive dissonance Toyota is experiencing, it’s stubbornness on Toyotas part to not acknowledge what is happening.
My guess is Toyota has done the math and as a volume car supplier it could never secure enough BEV materials to make the kind of volumes it needs to to maintain its current sales, so it’s betting / hoping on an alternative.
If hydrogen is a dead end, plenty of car makers are making battery electric cars, little loss to the future. But you never know what invention is just around the corner. It might just be a good bet.
Battery electric cars still have drawbacks that can be improved on, hydrogen is behind but it's great that alternatives are considered in earnest.
For instance, trucks must meet certain maximum weight requirements to be legal on roads due the damage they might otherwise cause. Lithium based batteries store much less energy for a unit of weight, so designers must make a harsh trade off between cargo capacity and range. Toyota claims that their prototype has about twice the range than the BYD 8TT, which is an all electric class 8 semi trailer.
Depending on how the development of batteries progresses, Hydrogen based tracks may end up being the most effective way forward. At least, till there is a fundamental advancement in alternative energy storage mediums.
Quick Googling:
"The battery used in the 8TT has more than 400 kWh of capacity, which according to the manufacturer translates into an all-electric range of 124 miles at full load or 167 miles at half load."
While this seems more interesting:
"Tesla describes the Semi as "a Beast" - "More powerful, more efficient and fully electric. Semi is the future of trucking." The company has maintained the core numbers, including two battery versions for about 300 miles (483 km) or 500 miles (804 km) of driving range when fully loaded.19 Aug 2022"