Japanese automaker to start producing Hydrogen fuel cell cars by 2020

folarin okunola

May 25, 2015 1:49 PM

The company has been investing and developing hydrogen fuel cell cars for years now, starting with the FCX in early 2007.

The Honda FCV concept.

Japanese automaker, Honda, recently debuted the latest version of its FCV concept, which is being described as “relatively close to the production car,” according to the head of powertrain development at Honda, Thomas Brachmann.

The latest FCV concept car is powered by a single hydrogen fuel cell stack, capable of driving 300 miles on a single tank and can be refueled in about five minutes.

Compared to the FCX, the FCV concept’s fuel cell stack has a power output of 3.1kW/L, which is a 60 percent increase even though the stack has been physically reduced in size by 30 percent.

Inasmuch as the company isn’t ready to release production figures for the FCV, Brachmann did state that Honda has no intentions of selling the car in low volumes.

The company does admit that infrastructure will be a major obstacle with hydrogen fuel cell cars, with Brachmann estimating that it will be 10 to 15 years before the technology is widely accepted.

This is a very welcome development for the worldwide automotive industry as a whole, with the need for clean energy to power cars becoming more and more imperative with each passing day.

folarin okunola