Big three Japanese carmakers in ‘green’ push

By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo

Published: January 13 2011 19:09 | Last updated: January 13 2011 19:09

Japan’s three largest carmakers have joined forces to promote the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, with a plan to build 100 filling stations in Japan for the next-generation “green” cars by 2015.

Toyota, Honda and Nissan will be joined by 10 Japanese natural-gas refiners and distributors, which plan to install the hydrogen stations in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

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Hydrogen for fuel cells is most commonly obtained by stripping it from liquefied natural gas.

The announcement, made on Thursday, is a boost for hydrogen fuel cell technology, which has been overshadowed by the introduction of battery-powered electric cars such as Nissan’s Leaf and GM’s Chevrolet Volt.

Like battery-powered cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles boast zero tailpipe emissions. But fuel cells deliver a more powerful, longer-lasting charge.

However, FCVs have so far proved expensive to manufacture, while the hydrogen distribution network needed to support them would also be costly and difficult to build.

Honda became the first carmaker to put a fuel-cell car in the market in 2008, when it started leasing its FCX Clarity to drivers in California.

But it cut funding for the Clarity during the financial crisis and has shifted its emphasis to petrol-electric hybrids and a planned battery-only model.

Hydrogen has also suffered setbacks in the US, where the Obama administration has cancelled $100m in annual research funding. A “hydrogen highway” in California was meant to have 150 filling stations by last year, but only 30 have been built.

The Japanese carmakers and energy groups did not say how much they would invest in the filling-station network, but the project could cost several hundred million dollars.

In Germany, the country with perhaps the most ambitious hydrogen-infrastructure plans, a consortium of companies aims to build 1,000 hydrogen stations in the next five years at a cost of up to €2bn ($2.6bn). The first 25 are to appear in large cities such as Berlin this year.