Japan Targets Hydrogen Future

Japan is moving forward with plans to create a "hydrogen society" in which fuel cells will be used to power vehicles, homes and office buildings.

The plan, which was announced last year, is gaining steam, according to executives from Toyota, Honda and other Japanese companies participating at a recent environmental symposium in Italy. They point to new research efforts to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fuel.

Toyota, Honda and Hyundai currently are the only carmakers offering fuel cell vehicles. Cumulative global sales of these models were less than 7,000 units—including about 2,500 in Japan—from 2013 through the end of last year, according to a report by Information Trends, a Washington, D.C.-based research company.

Japan’s plan calls for putting 40,000 fuel cell vehicles on the road by 2020 and growing the total to 200,000 units in 2025 and 800,000 by 2030. To support the ambitious goals, the number of hydrogen stations in Japan is expected to double to 160 in 2020, then double again every five years to reach 720 by 2030.

Fuel cell-powered models are the “ultimate environmentally friendly” vehicle, asserts Yoshikazu Tanaka, a Toyota chief engineer who headed the development of the company’s Mirai fuel cell car. The next step, he says, is to use the technology in buses and commercial vehicles, both of which Toyota already is testing.

Toyota has been developing fuel cell technology since 1992 and now offers free access to about 5,700 related patents. This type of information sharing is needed to drive costs down so they are on par with future hybrid-electric models, which Toyota hopes to achieve by 2025.

Honda also is working to reduce costs, while simultaneously boosting, quality, durability and reliability, says Takashi Moriya, a senior chief engineer for the company’s research and development organization. Recent progress on this front includes reducing the amount of precious metals used in the fuel cell stack and cutting production times. Honda is teaming with General Motors on a plant in Michigan that will produce fuel cell stacks for to next-generation vehicles starting in 2020.