Emmanuel, January 19th, 2011
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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles Have Bright Future
Together with a car manufacturer’s consortium and hydrogen
suppliers, the Japanese government has announced plans to
coordinate plans of introducing fuel cell vehicles to the general public.
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A joint statement from Toyota, Honda and Nissan promised that beginning in 2015, the three
manufacuters, in cooperation with 10 hydrogen suppliers such as Idemitsu and Tokyo Gas would
roll out mass-produced fuel cell vehicles in four major urban areas. This statement was issued at
Japan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. For its part, the Japanese government has declared that it
will support the mass introduction of fuel cell vehicles in 2015 and more penetration beyond it and
will take the necessary actions to support the manufacturers.
It was in September of 2009 that the German government, together with several private companies
announced plans for a similiar hydrogen network to be established by 2015. A memorandum was
signed by the German government with eight industrial partners that included Linde, Daimler,
Total and Shell.
Car manufacturers claim that they expect future FCVs to be less expensive which would help drive
sales by 2015 and beyond. Fuel cell vehicle manufacturers have promised to have ‘several hundred
thousand’ fuel cell powered-vehicles on the roads of Germany by then. Japan and Germany should
then have hydrogen fuelling networks with stations in major cities.
With this developments, Mercedes-Benz F-cell vehicles seem to have a leg up on the competition
at the moment.
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