Even if they mothball an EV early on, at least in the US, auto manufacturers are required to produce parts and provide maintenance for 10 years of the vehicle’s life. That and Toyota isn’t Tesla, they want to stand behind their brand.

I can see where they’re going with hydrogen. With projects like that Australian seawater hydrogen project making hydrogen generation “free”, it’s just a matter of time before it becomes cheaply accessible. A fuel cell/battery hybrid that could be filled up in minutes would be much more analogous to how gas cars currently work, versus the heavy flaws in current EVs like limited range, heavily degraded winter performance, and rapidly aging batteries in Nissans specifically due to lack of proper thermal management. Statistics are showing 57% of current EV owners don’t even want to buy an EV for their next car.

Deploying a hydrogen storage network would also not tax the already fragile power grids as an EV charging network would. Economically, having fuel truck networks, fueling stations, etc. continue to exist, would make hydrogen likely less disruptive to the existing model of transportation economics in countries like the US. Jobs could be retained.

The 2023 Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid available now, has an estimated 402 mile range on a full tank. Tesla Model 3 estimates 333 miles of range and have also been caught lying on their range gauge so that shouldn’t even be trusted.

Countries like the US are just pushing EV tech so heavily because it is available “now” and they think we can capitalism our way out of climate change. The more boring methods like finding ways to continue utilizing existing vehicles but limit driving frequency with augments like actual public transportation don’t interest the shareholders.