Japan

The Sakura, an unassuming microcar from Nissan and Mitsubishi which launched last year, has become the top-selling EV in Japan, beating out global rival Tesla. In a country that has been dragging its heels in going electric, this neat little car meets an obvious need that connects to consumers: It’s cheap and insanely practical.

A city near Tokyo is the first in Japan to test wireless charging for EVs – and the chargers are in front of traffic lights.

A new electric pickup truck is set to roll out from Japanese automaker Isuzu. Isuzu president Shinsuke Minami confirmed the news at an unveiling event in Thailand.

China’s largest automaker, BYD, is set to take on Toyota on its home turf. BYD launched the all-electric Dolphin hatchback starting at ¥3.63 million ($24,570) in Japan Wednesday as it looks to take on Toyota head-on.

Struggles continue for Toyota – still one of the world’s largest automakers for now – as its latest hiccup comes in the form of a production system malfunction. As a result, Toyota has had to halt all operations at its assembly plants throughout Japan, leaving local output frozen.

Japan’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor, is laying off workers in China as the company struggles to keep up in the world’s biggest EV market.

Japanese automaker’s reluctance to go all-electric is already taking a toll on the nation’s auto industry. Mitsubishi Motors revealed this week it’s suspending operations in China due to its inability to keep up as EVs continue to take over the market.

Harley-Davidson expects to bring its electric motorcycles to Japan by next year, according to the company’s CEO.

Tokyo’s local assembly today ruled that all new houses built by large-scale homebuilders in the Japanese capital must have solar panels installed from April 2025.

South Korean officials and leaders from Japan are expressing concerns over the new US EV tax credit requirements that kick in at the end of the year. New reports are surfacing that Japan and South Korea will request flexibility in the rule changes. Will they get their way, paving the way for automakers like Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia electric vehicles to qualify?

Japanese automaker Toyota continues to delve deeper into a Bizarro-mirrored universe in which it actually (sort of) behaves like an EV automaker. Following news earlier this week in which the EV laggards laid out an $5.6 billion investment plan to build batteries, Toyota is already making moves to convert two engine and powertrain plants near its Japanese headquarters to produce EV batteries instead.

The EU plans to transition to renewables more than twice as fast as Japan by 2030, according to new analysis released by global energy think tank Ember ahead of the G7 environment, climate, and energy ministers meeting, which kicks off today in Berlin. The ministers will decide whether and how G7 countries will commit to clean power by 2035. 

The “world’s first” autonomous commercial cargo ship has successfully completed a near-500 mile voyage in the congested waters of Tokyo Bay, traveling without human intervention for 99% of the trip. The 750 gross-ton vessel was powered by Orca AI, whose software helped the ship avoid hundreds of collisions autonomously.

Japan, the world’s second-largest car exporter, risks a 14% drop in GDP if it does not move more swiftly toward producing electric vehicles, according to a new report by the Climate Group.

A recent report out of Tokyo says that Toyota is working on an SUV version of its Crown sedan, arriving in hybrid, PHEV, and fully-electric versions for its home country in addition to exports of some versions to China and North America. The Crown was the first Toyota vehicle to be exported to the United States in 1958, and it has remained a mainstay model in the Japanese market for 67 years.

Solid-state battery developer, QuantumScape, has shared plans for a new office in Kyoto, Japan, which will feature a state-of-the-art lab for battery research and development. The company hopes to work alongside experienced battery scientists in the Asia-Pacific region to further develop and manufacturer it battery technologies for electric vehicles.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe recently spoke to proposals of hydrogen combustion cars by rivals like Toyota, stating his company studied the technology’s potential ten years ago. Mibe went on to say that unlike Toyota, Honda doesn’t see hydrogen combustion as feasible for cars. That doesn’t mean the Japanese automaker is abandoning the chemical element, however. Hydrogen Fuel Cell EVs remain a key part of its zero-emissions strategy looking forward.

At its Futures event in Yokohama Japan, Nissan unveiled an electric lunar rover co-developed alongside the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The prototype features AWD technology that will soon be featured on certain trims of 2023 Nissan Ariya.

(The following article was sent to us by a concerned Japanese resident who wishes to remain anonymous.)

Remember the first electric Toyota RAV4? Probably not. The early attempt at an EV barely had a range of 100 miles and Toyota sold very few of them. Back in 2010, Toyota and Tesla jointly worked on a second RAV4 EV project and Toyota had invested $50 million in Tesla, which it sold in 2017 (and which would now be worth $20 billion had they not sold it).

Japan aims to increase its clean energy use to nearly 40% by 2030, according to a new Basic Energy Plan draft released by the Japanese government today. The country also plans to reduce its use of fossil fuels.

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today on EGEB, Japan updates its toothless energy plan. Oil-producing Alaska seeks carbon-free power to save itself from thawing permafrost. A new report shows how the 20 most water-stressed countries also have the most potential for solar energy and could thus alleviate their people’s thirst by going green.

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