Can the dead sheep still make up for it? The crisis and thinking faced by Japanese car companies in the new energy era

Due to the surge in global sales of new energy vehicles, 2021 is seen by many as the first year for the development of new energy vehicles. Although faced with many difficulties such as chip shortages and the epidemic affecting the supply chain, the new energy vehicle industry has still made great progress in 2021. The 2021 global new energy brand sales data released by CleanTechnica shows that the cumulative global sales of new energy models in 2021 will be nearly 6.5 million, an increase of 108% over the same period in 2020, the highest growth rate since 2012, and an unprecedented market share of 9 %. The performance is very strong.

In the top 20 rankings of related new energy car companies, Tesla won the top spot with nearly 930,000 sales, followed by BYD, a domestic new energy car company, with 593,900 sales. Second, SAIC-GM-Wuling, also from China, ranked third with sales of 456,100 units thanks to the dazzling performance of the "magic car" Wuling Hongguang MINIEV. Among the top 20 manufacturers, 8 Chinese brands came out on top, 4 automakers from Germany, 3 European brands, 2 American and 2 Korean brands. However, it is surprising that among the Japanese brands with many well-known car companies such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, only Toyota has entered the top 20, and its sales volume is only 116,000.

From the perspective of total sales, Japanese brands still have excellent performance on a global scale. According to statistics, in the global car company sales list in 2021, Toyota has become the only car company in the world with an annual sales volume of nearly 10.5 million vehicles, while in addition to Toyota, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance has sold 7.68 million vehicles. Honda and Suzuki from Japan also ranked seventh and ninth with 4.48 million and 2.76 million respectively. In the top ten, Japanese manufacturers can be said to occupy 4 seats, and Japanese car companies are in The strong performance in total sales is in sharp contrast to its decline in new energy vehicles. So, why are Japanese car companies, who have always had profound attainments in the automotive field, facing the danger of falling behind in the coming wave of new energy?

When I was young, I didn’t know that pure electricity was good, and I mistakenly regarded hydrogen energy as a treasure.

In fact, for Japan, which is poor in resources, especially oil resources, how to improve the driving efficiency of vehicles has always been a problem considered by Japanese car companies. The fuel economy of Japanese cars is also famous all over the world. However, despite the fact that Japanese car companies have very little market share in the current new energy market, it is assumed that Japanese brands do not pay attention to the development of new energy vehicles. In fact, including Toyota, Honda and other car companies, they have accumulated a lot of technology in the field of new energy, but they "pointed the wrong skill tree" and put a lot of energy into the field of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The decision of Japanese car companies to gamble on hydrogen energy is not only their own decision, but also involves Japan’s domestic policy obsession with hydrogen energy. The fourth Middle East war in 1973 led to the outbreak of the first oil crisis. Japan, which lacked oil resources, decided to raise hydrogen energy to the national strategic level, and established the "Hydrogen Energy Association" to coordinate development. In the following 30 years, Japan has always hoped to use clean and efficient hydrogen energy as one of the country's core new energy sources, which, to a certain extent, has also affected the choice of Japanese auto companies for the development of new energy vehicles.

Under the incentives of various policies of the Japanese government, Japanese car companies represented by Toyota have begun to develop hydrogen energy models. In 2013, Toyota released a hydrogen fuel cell concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show, and finally officially launched the MIRAI FCV in December 2014, becoming the world's first commercial hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Soon after, Nissan and Honda also launched hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In 2018, the three major auto giants joined 8 other companies and institutions to form a hydrogen energy alliance, and also established a new company to pave the way for the future development of hydrogen energy.