Toyota will be shipping their first EVs for the 2020 market year (so I guess in the fall of this year if I understand such things correctly). It will be very interesting to see what happens. In Japan Nissan and Mitsubishi completely own the EV market (I see them frequently now and even own a Leaf myself). I've never seen any other make of EV (although I'm absolutely sure they exist and if I wasn't in the middle of the countryside would probably run into them occasionally).
My interest in this story is actually Panasonic because I'm curious about how aggressively they will pursue the Japanese EV market. Nissan just sold their battery making division and apparently had talks with Panasonic, but those apparently broke down. I have no idea who will build Toyota's batteries (and probably every other Japanese car maker as they all went in together into a consortium for building EVs). Mitsubishi apparently use GS Yuasa, which is a fairly new Japanese company (15 years old) that was created from a group of companies that used to make lead acid batteries.
If Panasonic thinks that Tesla isn't going to perform, they may need to hustle to stay relevant.
Yuasa were making rechargeable AA batteries many decades ago, I can remember them in the 1980's in the UK or whenever it was that the Sony Walkman was king as they were invariably in the charger. Maybe they didn't make it to the US. I don't believe my personal recollections are that reliable, but I am pretty sure that Yuasa have been going for decades and would be surprised to be considered 'fairly new'.
GS Yuasa is the product of a merger. The merged company is fairly new (2004), but you're right - GS and Yuasa were formed in 1904 and 1909 respectively, and have been manufacturing automotive batteries since a century ago.
What’s also important is how extensive the EV charging network is in Japan. The dealers all seem to have chargers, as do malls like Aeon, and some gas stations and conbini. I assume all the michieki have them too.
I have a Suzuki Lapin (80mpg!!), so I don’t pay enough attention. What’s your experience with charging on the go?
What gets me about Japan is how practical electric cars would be there. I lived in Hokkaido, and, in my experience:
* It was quite unusual for anyone to drive further than 300km in a day,
* The cold weather rarely got too far below zero so the range reduction from cold weather would be much smaller,
* On-street parking isn't a thing so charging stations would be easier to put in.
They do great with small, fuel efficient cars (like your Lapin!), and the Leaf is good, but I'm left wondering why EVs haven't been as big as they could be
I actually live in an apartment and we don't have access to an electrical outlet outside, so I have to charge at a charger every time. There is a Family Mart near my house that has a quick charger. They limit you to 9 Kwh for each 30 minute charging session. I don't know if that's just how big a pipe they have or if they are limiting it for some other reason. It's not usually very busy, so I often charge twice which will fill me up almost all the time. I live in Shizuoka and it's never very cold here, so the chargers at Nissan will usually get me to 90+% in 30 minutes no matter how low I am (never been lower than 22%, though). I've had to wait a few times, but surprisingly little. I always bring my laptop with me and work either for paid work or on my side project when I recharge. It's actually a really good place to code: comfortable and quiet. I've found that I really enjoy this time, which is weird to say.
We've done a few longer road trips -- the longest one being about 350 km. I think it's safe to say that you need to plan to double the amount of time it would normally take you to get there (at least with our 30 KWh Leaf). However, I'm in my 50s and we also take my mother in law who is in her 80s, so... bathroom breaks are necessary anyway :-)
We drove to Takayama and I think we needed to stop 3 times to charge up. One positive is that there are charging stations on all of the toll roads as far as I can tell -- at least where we live. We stopped for breakfast, then stopped for the toilet and some omiyage shopping and then stopped for lunch. It seemed pretty natural.
On the way back we decided to take the non-toll roads for fun. It's a bit stressful, to be honest. There are actually lots of charging stations, so it's not really a problem. However, they are in weird places and the Navigation unit sometimes has some pretty strange ideas of the best way to get to the charging station. I'm still slowly getting the hang of setting up way points in the navigation unit on the Leaf -- the UI is absolutely horrible. But it can be done and I think once I play with it some more it won't be so bad.
I think the best thing about the experience was stopping in tiny towns that we would never have seen. To be honest, as a kind of lazy tourist trip, the 30 minute charging time is too short. Pretty much every time we stopped we felt rushed and had to get back to the car. I suppose in reality out in the mountains nobody drives an EV so we probably didn't need to worry.
All of our road trips have actually been in the mountains because we wanted to get some experience with that. It's kind of shocking when you are going uphill to realise that you probably won't even be able to do 100 km before you have to stop. But then on the way down it's just coasting all the way. For example, we went up to a small town near mount Fuji and had to stop 3 times to get up the mountain. On the way back we went nearly 300 km without stopping :-)
Anyway, I hope that gives you some idea. My biggest advice for anyone getting an EV is to definitely get a navigation unit that allows you to navigate to the charging stations. I can't remember if it's an option on the Leaf, but for road trips or going places that you've never been before, it's practically necessary (there are mobile apps, but it's stressful enough trying to juggle it without having to worry about dealing with your mobile while driving!). The other thing is we have a subscription for recharging which costs 3000 yen per month. It's a no-brainer for us since we can't recharge at home, but if you want to do any travelling, it's pretty much essential. For us it means we pay only 3000 yen (about $30) a month for fuel, which is practically paying for the car (we bought it used). We also got in on a deal that for the first 2 years we get 3000 yen worth of JCB gift certificates (which are accepted practically everywhere), so we essentially get free fuel for those 2 years.
In the end, it really depends on lifestyle. My wife is the busy, busy, go, go type of person, but I'm hugely laid back. I recharge the car almost every time because I enjoy relaxing and programming for an hour every couple of days. When we travel, I don't want to get there as soon as possible -- I want to relax and enjoy the journey. It suits be very well and even my wife says that she's happy we got an EV. I asked her if she would do it again if she had the chance and she said yes, so I don't think we'll ever go back to an ICE. However, I don't think it would be for everyone -- at least not until the rush mentality of our culture calms down a bit. YMMV ;-)
My interest in this story is actually Panasonic because I'm curious about how aggressively they will pursue the Japanese EV market. Nissan just sold their battery making division and apparently had talks with Panasonic, but those apparently broke down. I have no idea who will build Toyota's batteries (and probably every other Japanese car maker as they all went in together into a consortium for building EVs). Mitsubishi apparently use GS Yuasa, which is a fairly new Japanese company (15 years old) that was created from a group of companies that used to make lead acid batteries.
If Panasonic thinks that Tesla isn't going to perform, they may need to hustle to stay relevant.