Hydrogen vehicles are delaying the energy transition and should not be promoted by Toyota during the Paris Olympics, say a hundred scientists in an open letter published on Tuesday, July 9.
Five hundred Toyota Mirai, the only sedan on the market equipped with a fuel cell, are to join the official fleet of the event, before being converted into taxis after the Games. A dozen buses are also to transport the athletes. “The promotion of a hydrogen car is scientifically in contradiction with the global CO2 emissions targets” and will “damage the image of the Games”, warn the signatories of this open letter sent to the International Olympic Committee and consulted by AFP.
“Toyota has been promoting hydrogen for a long time, but they are only trying to delay the transition to electric vehicles,” David Cebon, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, told AFP. “It’s a very cynical delaying tactic from one of the most powerful companies in the world.”
Toyota’s delay in electric development
The world’s number one automobile manufacturer has fallen far behind in the development of electric cars, preferring hybrid models, which are more versatile and in which it is a pioneer. It is also one of the only brands in the world, along with BMW and Hyundai, to work on hydrogen, appreciated for the autonomy and rapid recharging it offers to vehicles.
For these scientists, who rely on the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), electric vehicles represent the “most effective way to decarbonize transport”. “Green” hydrogen vehicles (extracted from renewable electricity) require three times more energy than equivalent electric vehicles, and therefore more infrastructure such as wind turbines and solar panels, and are three times more expensive to use, these scientists assure.
Green hydrogen remains rare: the gas is currently produced mainly from fossil fuels (for the fertilizer industry in particular) and emits almost as much CO2 each year as global aviation, according to the Hydrogen Science Coalition, of which Cebon is a member. The group believes that hydrogen can play only a minor role in the energy transition by 2050. The signatories are calling on Toyota to replace its Olympic vehicles with electric vehicles or, failing that, not to promote them, Cebon said.
Contacted Monday, neither Toyota nor the International Olympic Committee commented on the letter. Toyota had said the Olympic cars would be fueled with hydrogen from renewable sources by Air Liquide, another Olympic partner.