Electric cars, a good new alternative Brought to the great adaptation of the automotive industry. Especially the technology leader country from Japan. To watch the world over And interesting lessons for Thailand At the same time, there are some issues that both governments and private companies need to pay attention to nine years ago. Toyota Prius became the world’s first hybrid vehicle that could be produced and sold commercially. In other words, production and sales of large volumes have

Actually started this hybrid car in 1975, after all countries around the world faced the oil crisis in 1973. Than Toyota will produce a special engine that actually saves fuel It passed into the year 1980, but the engine is still not good enough. When entering the year 1993, Toyota successfully produced a prototype. But it is expected that it is still faster than the market demand at that time. (And the price is still very high)

Than the Prius will enter the consumer market. Toyota has to wait until 1997

with the support of the Japanese government. Which compensates people who buy hybrids, the number of hybrids has grown steadily.In 2016, hybrids already accounted for 9.1 percent of the market.

As Toyota’s thirty-year efforts are beginning to blossom. The company also has to face a big technological change. The advent of electric vehicles (Electric Vehicle: EV) itself.

Adaptation of Japanese carmakers

Toyota faced a big decision. Will continue to develop hybrid technology Or turn to develop EV to catch up with the big car manufacturers in America and Europe.

While Toyota and Honda are devoted to developing hybrid technology Nissan also turned to electric vehicle development and was able to sell its own electric car Nissan Leaf in 2010 and committed to producing EV to penetrate the market.

As the global trend is finally turning to EV, in 2015 Toyota decided to partner with Mazda to actively develop EV vehicles, and this year the two companies announced a joint venture. Build an electric car together.

EV car flows in Japan

Currently, there are just over 60,000 electric cars in Japan, or only about 0.1 percent (2016 data from ischool ) .Most Japanese people are still hesitant and wait to continue to study, and

the government does not give up. Continue to fully support electric vehicles Since in 2015 the Japanese government agreed in the Paris Treaty that It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by another 26 percent by 2030. The increased use of electric vehicles is a key contributor to reducing global warming.

The Japanese government has taken various measures to campaign for more people to use electric cars, such as

1. Give money to support

Which has been done since supporting the hybrid car By paying about four hundred thousand yen (1.5 hundred thousand baht) to the buyer of the electric train (The amount may differ depending on the model)

2. Local governments too

In addition to government grants, in some districts, local governments provide an additional ¥ 50,000.

3. Reduce taxes

Electric car buyer Will reduce car tax by about 1.2 hundred thousand yen,

although electric car prices are still quite high (about 3 million yen), but with government support. And fuel saving features Electric cars should be an attractive option for the Japanese people,

but … consumers are still afraid to turn to electric cars.

The first concern is whether or not there will be enough chargers. Electric cars can run for a distance of about 400 kilometers only, if the lights are out, they cannot run at all. (Unlike petrol cars That we may stack motorcycles to buy gas and refuel)

The Japanese government and private companies are trying to solve this problem. By adding a charging station Currently, there are 7,100 quick charging stations and more than 2.8k regular charging stations, all of which are close to the number of gas stations.

Japan’s Electric Power Research Institute has analyzed that If Japan is able to build a charging station every 30 kilometers, drivers will definitely not have to worry about the power problem.

If you divide the number of charging stations by the total road length Charging Station are each 26.5 km but the current problem is that charging stations are available in larger amounts, but in a small number of chargers also covers the

current private company founded a website called EV Gogo by the Community. Nity of electric car drivers Drivers can upload photos of charging stations, give ratings or report damage (similar to Wongnai, but charging station version)