Japan Is Betting Big On The Future Of Hydrogen Cars

...In Japan, the Mirai is expensive even with a generous government subsidy that brings it down from the equivalent of about $70,000 to $50,000. The largest cost is the fuel cell production, but Toyota says that will drop as production ramps up.

Japan has embraced the technology and aims to create the first “hydrogen society,” which also includes the use of hydrogen for power generation. The energy ministry has ambitious targets in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics. The city of Tokyo plans to deploy 100 hydrogen fuel cell buses during the games, and it wants to have 40,000 fuel cell electric vehicles on the road, with a longer-term goal of 200,000such vehicles in the next six years.

More convenient than plug-in electric

Today there are far more battery electric vehicles on the road than hydrogen cars, with more than 5 million plug-in cars worldwide, according to José Pontes, an analyst at EV-Volume.com, a Web site that tracks the industry. But in countries like Japan, where much of the population lives in dense urban areas, many people live in apartment buildings without a place to easily charge a car. It’s here where companies like Toyota are banking on the convenience of hydrogen fuel cell.

“There’s just no behavior change as long as you have [hydrogen] infrastructure in place,” says Matthew Klippenstein, co-author of the online publication Fuel Cell Industry Review. “We go to the same gas station and fuel up in the same few minutes and just keep on tootling on.”

In South Korea, where the majority of residents also live in urban areas, automaker Hyundai just announced that it plans to produce 700,000 fuel cell cars a year by 2030....

So the Japanese government has stepped in with subsidies. The country, along with private companies like Toyota, has helped build and operate 100 hydrogen fueling stations so far. Japan has a target of 900 by 2030. By then, Toyota hopes there will be enough hydrogen vehicles to make the stations profitable....

Japan Is Betting Big On The Future Of Hydrogen Cars

WBHM

But Japan isn't sure that the battery electric car is the only future, and it's betting big on something it says makes more sense in big cities: hydrogen fuel ...