by Peter Landers (Wall Street Journal) Toyota Motor Corp.’s leader criticized what he described as excessive hype over electric vehicles, saying advocates failed to consider the carbon emitted by generating electricity and the costs of an EV transition.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda said Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. The infrastructure needed to support a fleet consisting entirely of EVs would cost Japan between ¥14 trillion and ¥37 trillion, the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion, he said.
“When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” Mr. Toyoda said Thursday at a year-end news conference in his capacity as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Toyotaâs Chief Says Electric Vehicles Are Overhyped
Akio Toyoda says converting entirely to EVs could cost hundreds of billions of dollars and make cars unaffordable for average people Investors and big auto makers are pouring money into electric-vehicle startups in a search for the next Tesla, with the hopes of cashing in. One company is drawing more scrutiny than most. WSJ explains. Illustration: Jacob Reynolds/WSJ By Dec. 17, 2020 4:17 am ET
TOKYOâ Toyota Motor Corp.âs leader criticized what he described as excessive hype over electric vehicles, saying advocates failed to consider the carbon emitted by generating electricity and the costs of an EV transition.
Japanâs Asteroid Mission Retrieves Lots of Black Dirt
Scientists find crumbly samples of the asteroid Ryugu in capsule, secure first sample of extraterrestrial gases
The capsule from Japanâs Hayabusa2 mission revealed a large amount of asteroid material. Photo: JAXA/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images By Dec. 15, 2020 8:00 am ET
TOKYOâJapanâs space agency said it recovered far more black dirt than it was targeting from the asteroid Ryugu, confirming the success of its Hayabusa2 mission nine days after it delivered its payload to the Australian outback.
Scientists plan to study the material, which is thought to retain the chemical composition of the early solar system some 4.6 billion years ago, for clues to the origins of life on earth.
By Joachim Teigen
The Archdiocese of Cardiff in Wales has been awarded £100,000 by the Barclays Bank to continue its relief work over the Christmas season. The “100x100 UK COVID-19 Community Relief Programme” was launched by the UK bank to support local charities in their response to immediate community needs.
A statement released jointly by Barclays and the Archdiocese states that the Archdiocese of Cardiff is one of only 100 UK charities to be awarded under the programme directed at communities suffering lack of food as a direct result of Covid-19.
Support in crisis
The UK is one of the European countries most severely affected by the pandemic, with almost 1,800,000 cases, and more than 63,000 deaths.