Honda Seeks Mass-Market Fuel-Cell Car by 2020

A Honda Motor Co. executive said Tuesday that the Japanese auto maker hopes to launch a reasonably priced fuel-cell car by 2020.

Visitors look at a Honda FCX Clarity displayed at an expo in Tokyo on Feb. 27.

While that may sound a long way off, that’s actually an ambitious goal given the extremely high R&D costs associated with developing a zero-emission technology that is still nowhere near the price range of the average consumer.

“We have to lower our costs so it makes business sense to try to reach a mass market by 2020,” said Koichi Fukuo, managing officer in charge of Honda’s drive trains, in a meeting with reporters.

The price “will have to be reduced to several million yen and the upper limits (of the prices) would have to be similar to those of the premium grade vehicles in each segment,” Mr. Fukuo added.

The ambitious goal may not even be as new as it seems. While Mr. Fukuo was expressing the goal in the context of Honda’s joint development pact with General Motors Co. announced two weeks ago, a Honda engineer publicly made a similar comment eight years ago.

Yozo Kami, Honda R&D Co.’s executive chief engineer, said in 2005 that the price range of any future fuel-cell car would have to be lowered to between Y3 million and Y4 million by about 2020, citing the price range of a Honda Accord sedan. “Otherwise, the fuel-cell vehicle will disappear,” he noted.

Fuel-cell cars are powered by electricity generated through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. As they generate no toxic exhaust gases, they are seen as highly promising zero-emission vehicles.

But the prohibitive costs of building them – about Y100 million ($1 million) a decade ago and still more than Y10 million now – and the lack of a network of hydrogen stations remain major obstacles hampering their widespread use.

Also, the fact the mass-marketing of the vehicles is still being thought of in terms of years from now rather than the present highlights how difficult it has been to commercialize this type of green car despite the fact it has few technological issues in terms of vehicle performance.

To help reduce costs, Honda is teaming up with GM as it hopes to achieve economies of scale. The U.S. auto giant has advanced know-how in analyzing chemical reactions that will be a key part of the technology used in fuel-cell cars. All the same, the two car makers will not aggressively look for other car makers to join their team and reduce costs further, Mr. Fukuo said.

“Only the two of us will work together for the time being,” he said.

Honda & GM Partner To Develop Hydrogen Cars

General Motors and Honda announced TODAY - Tuesday, July 2, 2013, that they will collaborate to develop hydrogen-powered cars. They have joined in a long-term, definitive master agreement to jointly develop a next-generation fuel cell system and hydrogen storage technologies.

Honda’s current FCX Clarity Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, 2009′s World Green Car.

For the past decade, automakers have touted electric power as the best propulsion system for a clean-fuel car, and hydrogen fueling has been thought prohibitively expensive in the mass market. However, GM and Honda are now taking the lead in developing sustainable hydrogen power for automobiles, hopeful that it will offer another green alternative. Toyota and Mercedes-Benz have also both announced a strong interest in hydrogen vehicles.

GM and Honda are trying to bring a product to market by 2020. The collaboration aims to produce a common power plant powered by hydrogen, standardize components, and push for more hydrogen fuel stations, which are presently scarce.

“It’s a simple fact,” Honda spokespeople admit. “One day crude oil will dry up.”

On the other hand, hydrogen offers benefits in both renewability and sustainability. “We are convinced this is the best way to develop this important technology,” said GM CEO Dan Akerson. Fuel-cell vehicles can operate not only on natural gas, as most currently do. They can also use renewable hydrogen produced by sources like wind and biomass. The only emission from fuel-cell vehicles is water (in the form of vapor), a commodity that is becoming scarcer every day. However, propelling a car using electricity is about 3 times more efficient than splitting hydrogen to propel a car, so many electric car enthusiasts contend that hydrogen is not the greenest or most efficient solution and we shouldn’t pursue it.

Fuel-cell technology addresses many of the main challenges of gasmobiles, however – energy efficiency, range, refueling times, petroleum dependence, and emissions. This type of propulsion technology can be used on small, medium, and large vehicles. A fuel-cell car has up to 400 miles of driving range and can be refueled in as little as three minutes.

“GM and Honda are acknowledged leaders in fuel cell technology,” says the July 2 press release from General Motors. “According to the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index, GM and Honda rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in total fuel cell patents filed between 2002 and 2012, with more than 1,200 between them.”

Honda, for five years the country’s Greenest Automaker, brings to the partnership a comprehensive portfolio of environmental technologies, including hydrogen, battery electric, solar, and natural gas. Honda’s experience with its currently back-ordered Fit EVs, which do not produce any CO2 emissions while in use and come bundled with a free 240-volt EV home charging station, and the FCX Clarity, named the 2009 World Green Car and sold as “the zero-emissions electric vehicle of the future,” add significantly to the joint venture’s attractiveness. The partnership will also take advantage of GM’s early work in battery chemistry and hydrogen fuel-cell technology, Chevy Volt results, the unequaled Project Driveway program, and its OnStar vehicle diagnostics and support system. Each company can contribute huge manufacturing capability (GM, in 30 countries; Honda, in more than 60 plants in 27 nations).

Takanobu Ito, president and CEO of Honda, said that “Honda and GM are eager to accelerate the market penetration of this ultimate clean mobility technology, and I am excited to form this collaboration to fuse our leading fuel cell technologies and create an advanced system that will be both more capable and more affordable.”

Check out our Inventory of Honda Hybrids!