By Tim Kelly, Maki Shiraki

TOKYO, (Reuters) – Over the weekend in Glasgow at the U.N. Climate Conference, delegates discussed how they could save our planet. Toyota Motor (NYSE) chief executive was racing in Japan an experimental hydrogen vehicle. He believes this car could save millions of jobs.

AkioToyoda’s Toyota Yaris was powered by a hydrogen-powered Corolla engine. This powerplant could be commercially feasible and keep internal combustion engines working in a world without carbon.

“The enemy of carbon is internal combustion engines and not carbon.” Toyoda suggested that it is not a good idea to focus solely on one technology. Instead, we should use the technologies already available. Carbon neutrality does not mean one has to choose, it is about having options.

Toyota is launching a new push in hydrogen technology as the largest carmaker worldwide joins the race to capture a portion of the rapidly growing market for electric cars (BEVs) as the rest of the world tightens emissions regulations to comply with carbon-cutting promises.

Toyota intends to make 15 electric vehicles available by 2025 and has invested $13.5 billion in the past decade to increase battery production.

NOT ONLY ELECTRIC

The gathering was attended by six of the world’s largest carmakers: General Motors (NYSE;), Ford Motors(NYSE:), Sweden’s Volvo and Daimler AG (DE) Mercedes-Benz has signed a declaration by the German government to eliminate fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040.

Toyota refused to be part of that group, saying that the majority of the world was not ready to shift to electric vehicles. Germany’s Volkswagen (DE) was another notable absentee.

Shigeru Yamakawa, Toyota Vice Chairman, stated that the company does not want to be branded as an EV maker but instead as a carbon-neutral business.

Hayakawa described the technical choices for the auto industry as a late 19th century competition that pitted direct current against alternating. These are important decisions.

Takeshi Miyao from Carnorama said that “if the rapid adoption of carbon-free gasolines occurs quickly, it could bring an end to the first battery EV boom.”

Hydrogen’s appeal in Japan is its ability to cause less disruption than a complete switch from EVs. Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association says that the automobile industry employs about 5.5million people.

Toyota and other automakers are investing in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV), but none of them have the same enthusiasm as Toyota for hydrogen engine technology.

CHALLENGING TECHNOLOGY

There is one problem: the engine does not emit zero carbon and therefore cannot be considered as completely emission-free.

Water is the byproduct from hydrogen and oxygen combustion, but engine metal can also be burned, which results in approximately 2% of gasoline engines’ emissions. Also, the exhaust contains some nitrogen oxide.

While there is a carbon price for building batteries for electric cars, EVs are not harmful to the environment when they are used.

Also, hydrogen cars require bulky pressure tanks to store their fuel. Toyota’s hydrogen car had a large amount of rear seats and trunk that was taken over by the fuel tanks, which blocked the rear windows.

Toyota engineers needed to make sure that the fuel tank was not too far from where the other cars were working.

Even though the Japanese government supports the fuel as a vital component of its future carbon neutral energy mix, such concerns have hindered the Japanese construction of hydrogen fuelling station.

The Japanese government had 154 hydrogen stations at the end in August, six less than the desired number by March.

“Hydrogen has long been known as a potential low-carbon transport fuel, but establishing it in the transport fuel mix has been difficult,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a progress report https://www.iea.org/reports/hydrogen this month.

Toyota must still build an electric vehicle to compete with gasoline-powered cars and other EVs, even with a good fuel infrastructure.

Toyoda in Okayama refused to give a date for a Toyota commercial hydrogen-engine vehicle.

“It is good to have many choices. Eiji Terasaki, 57, said that if everything is EVs then most of the industry will be in China. He had travelled from neighboring Kagawa prefecture for the race and was able to see the Okayama circuit.