Absolutely correct!!! This is why Hydrogen fuel can be a big problem for third world countries. Governments and authorities will simply refuse to use Hydrogen if it isn’t cheaper to manufacture/not more profitable than Petrol. They’ll keep using Petrol with outdated manufacturing and emissions standards and we will achieve very less in terms of environmental repairs.

This is why EVs are somewhat still a good viable option even for third world countries. You can fill up an ICE with Petrol instead of Hydrogen, but you cannot use Petrol in an EV. Even with a weak infrastructure, as long as there is electricity and an electric port in your house, you’re good to go. Even if the government gets so stubborn they stop providing you with electricity to stop you from using EVs for whatever reason, you can still go for an off grid solution like wind power/solar power for yourself.

“shifting to Euro 5 from Euro 2”

Correction: The better term will not be “shifting”, it should be “introduction”. Only that fuel which is imported in finished form is required to be Euro5, the deadline after which only Euro5 petrol can be imported was somewhere in 2020 and for Euro5 diesel it was Jan 2021.

It was extensively covered in newspapers as well as blogs that this Euro5 is only for imports meanwhile the 5(?) local refineries have no compulsion to improve, they’ll keep manufacturing that obsolete Euro2. Even they were obligated to stop their use of MMT but the deadline has passed since a few years but nothing has been done yet.

As finished product imports are only a few %, remaining is crude oil which is then converted into marketable products at the local refineries, there seems small impact of clean fuel, if any.

Ref. following articles along with comments:

https://carspiritpk.com/pso-to-begin-importing-euro-5-fuel/
https://carspiritpk.com/pakistan-to-adapt-euro-5-standards/
https://carspiritpk.com/auto-industry-wants-2-years-euro-5/
https://carspiritpk.com/switching-euro-5-solve-environmental-problems/
https://carspiritpk.com/oil-industry-protests-switch-euro-5/
https://carspiritpk.com/oil-refineries-criticize-euro-5-pricing-formula/

Hydrogen propelled vehicle technology isn’t actually new, and has been available since the 90’s-2000’s! It was raised to succeed as an alternative fuel against Petrol or Diesel, and technology/conversions of ICEs from Petrol to Hydrogen was already very effectively done back then. Mazda converted their 13B Rotary engine to utilize Hydrogen and they were surprised at how well it worked with it. Most of the problems of the Rotary engine (emissions, fuel burning, etc.) was completely eradicated simply by using Hydrogen fuel. They then concluded that the best fuel for powering a Rotary engine would surely be Hydrogen. Similarly, many other traditional Piston ICEs were also converted to use Hydrogen as a fuel, with minor upgrades like thicker head gaskets, tighter engine torque tolerances, etc. I have been reading about Hydrogen fuel tech for a long time, and I was always wondering why this technology was never made to grow further.

However, like with any good thing, Politics and Oil companies lobbying for big governments never allowed this technology to flourish as much, just like with methanol fuel for commercial consumption.

The only problem I can see growing that is with this push by Toyota and it’s partners, I’m afraid that they’ll get an excuse to keep making ICEs. And that isn’t really a bad thing, really, but seeing that most third world countries are unchecked on what kind of fuel they’re using on their vehicles (Take Pakistan for example, shifting to Euro 5 from Euro 2 just recently), it can lead to just more environmental disasters waiting to happen. It also doesn’t help that most third world countries have either new Toyotas, Hondas or used old vehicles as transport choices available. Governments would likely be incompetent and not force the use of Hydrogen and remove Petrol consumption from it’s vehicles entirely. You can use Petrol in an ICE but you can’t use it in an Electric vehicle.

Unless Hydrogen becomes cheap and viable enough to produce indigenously by separate countries, and unless there are laws forcing every combustion commercial/transport vehicle to strictly use hydrogen as a fuel, then only Hydrogen fuel can truly flourish.

For now, we just have to deal with EVs.