Large corporations seem to be in a diversification spree – which makes a lot of sense. After Sony’s electric car, Toyota is now announcing that it has developed a fuel cell system for maritime applications, with its first delivery destined for Energy Observer. It all makes sense: cross pollination across industries happens naturally when one industry is being disrupted and another has significant know-how to introduce. Sony, an electronics giant. is no stranger to the basic ingredients of a car today: it’s no longer the sophisticated ICE or the complex powertrain, not even the elaborated design of the body in white to host all this. It’s the electronics and the electric motors. In par to that, Toyota is no stranger to mass producing hybrid prime movers. It practically created the market. So it’s only natural to seek to deploy its well established technology, with person-centuries of R&D behind it, to the maritime industry. More competition at the OEM level is good and shows there’s more innovation to come.
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