Honda plans to lead in U.S. with hydrogen fuel cell car
Storing and supplying volatile gas are challenges
March 4, 2002
BY MARK PHELAN
DETROIT FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. will start selling cars powered by nonpolluting hydrogen fuel cells in the United States next year.
With this move, Honda would likely be the first automaker to get a fuel-cell-powered passenger car to market anywhere, although most of the world's leading automakers, including General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG, have massive fuel-cell development programs.
Initially, Honda would sell the fuel-cell cars to a limited number of fleet customers, not to the public.
Fuel cells, which generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen in a controlled electro-chemical reaction, are widely seen as the auto industry's ultimate answer to reducing vehicle emissions.The only byproduct of generating electricity with fuel cells is water.
But fuel cells face major technical challenges, including the storage and delivery of hydrogen.
"I'm impressed that Honda is doing it in this time frame," said Jim Hall, vice president for industry analysis at consultant AutoPacific in Southfield. "It's obviously a (rush) program to be first on the market."
Because there is no infrastructure for production and delivery of hydrogen, and because storing hydrogen safely and efficiently in a vehicle remains a major technical challenge, many of the development programs rely on a so-called reformer on the vehicle to convert gasoline or another petroleum-based fuel into hydrogen. Honda's vehicles will run on hydrogen gas stored at high pressure in onboard tanks.
Honda will sell "a very limited number" of fuel-cell-powered cars in the United States next year, said Peter Rech, manager of Honda Division product planning for American Honda Motor Co. Inc. A person at Honda said the vehicles will be similar to the company's FCX-V4 concept vehicle, and that the number sold will be "much less than a few hundred vehicles."
Honda expects to sell the vehicles to one or more fleet customers, probably in California, where its engineers could monitor the program closely. The cars will refuel at a centralized fueling station at a fleet owner's site.
"With such a constrained customer base, they get around the question of infrastructure for refueling," Hall said. "They can gather some real-world data this way."
A number of automakers, including Honda, GM, DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Toyota Motor Corp., have fuel-cell-powered test vehicles in operation around the world. DaimlerChrysler plans to sell 30 prototype city buses powered by fuel cells this year. It plans to begin selling fuel-cell passenger cars in 2004.
Few details are available about Honda's plan for the 2003 fuel-cell car.
"We're not prepared to talk about numbers, who we'll sell them to or the price," Honda spokesman Andy Boyd said. Honda has a solar-powered hydrogen refueling station at its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif. That station can produce enough hydrogen each day to keep one vehicle running, Boyd said.
"This is the first step in the process of selling fuel cells to the public," Boyd said. "There are still a lot of hurdles, especially refueling infrastructure and cost. This allows us to evaluate commercial viability for a broader audience and gives us a chance for real-world performance and durability testing."
General Motors, a leader in fuel-cell development, has decided not to participate in such low-volume, high-visibility tests. "Our goal is to be the first manufacturer to sell 1 million vehicles powered by fuel cells," said J. Byron McCormick, executive director, GM Fuel Cell Technology & Commercialization.
While being the first automaker to sell the sophisticated, environmentally friendly system would generate significant positive publicity, McCormick said the challenge is making a profitable business from fuel cells. GM hopes to refine the system and make refueling widely available before it puts fuel-cell vehicles on the market.
Honda's FCX-V4 concept car is a 2-door, 4-passenger hatchback powered by a fuel cell running on compressed hydrogen gas. The hydrogen is stored at 5,000 psi in two fuel tanks under the floor of the passenger compartment. The 3,836-pound car has a top speed of 87 m.p.h. and a cruising range of more than 185 miles. The FCX-V4's electric motor produces 80 horsepower, or 60 kilowatts, and 176 foot-pounds of torque.
The FCX-V4's use of compressed hydrogen gas sidesteps one of the major development hurdles on which other automakers have focused their fuel-cell programs. They are studying ways to store greater amounts of hydrogen in a variety of chemical states, making the gas less volatile and improving their vehicles' operating range. |
