This. Not sure why OP think they went all in to hydrogen at all.
Just like every other car manufacture they couldn't quite put the numbers together on how Battery EV will work without a ridiculous amount of investment or bet. It is worth remembering they are primarily a car manufacture, not battery manufacture. Now things have changed not only because the path is clearer, and numbers are easier to do with less risk, ( big enterprise are risk averse ), but more importantly Investors loves EV. It doesn't matter if you have no concrete plan to make profit out of EV, your stock price will rise, and this has an effect on management, board, banks, cash flow, all sort of things.
Although I am skeptical of Solid State Battery, I would have thought a conservative company like Toyota would have went with conventional Li Battery with Silicon Anode type.
Just like every other car manufacture they couldn't quite put the numbers together on how Battery EV will work without a ridiculous amount of investment or bet. It is worth remembering they are primarily a car manufacture, not battery manufacture. Now things have changed not only because the path is clearer, and numbers are easier to do with less risk, ( big enterprise are risk averse ), but more importantly Investors loves EV. It doesn't matter if you have no concrete plan to make profit out of EV, your stock price will rise, and this has an effect on management, board, banks, cash flow, all sort of things.
Although I am skeptical of Solid State Battery, I would have thought a conservative company like Toyota would have went with conventional Li Battery with Silicon Anode type.