Fuel Cell Vehicles: Three OEM groups to reduce development costs
Toyota and Honda to launch their independently developed FCVs in 2015
2013/09/09
- Summary
- Schedules for production FCV launch and installation of hydrogen fueling stations
- Seeking joint development to reduce development costs
- Toyota, Nissan and Honda exhibit FCVs at Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Expo
- Toyota: Launching a sedan FCV in 2015, commencing joint development with BMW
- Nissan: Jointly developing FCV technologies with Daimler and Ford
- Honda: Launching next FCX Clarity in 2015, commencing collaboration with GM
- Hyundai Motor: Delivering FCV to Denmark and Sweden in 2013
Summary
 The FCV-R Concept by Toyota. The FCV slated for launch in 2015 is said to be designed after this Concept. |
Below is a summary of development and launch plans of fuel cell vehicles (FCV) among three Japanese automakers and other companies in the world. Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (Honda) each plan to launch their independently developed production FCVs in 2015 with a retail price slashed substantially from that of the existing models to around JPY 5 million.
Developing FCVs requires a huge amount of investment. Three corporate groups have been formed to reduce the investment burden and production cost per company. Toyota teamed up with BMW, Nissan with Daimler and Ford, and Honda with GM. These three groups will promote joint development of FCV technologies. The Nissan-Daimler-Ford group may launch their FCVs as early as 2017, and Toyota-BMW and Honda-GM groups respectively plan to launch their FCVs in 2020. The installation of hydrogen fueling stations is essential to the popularization of FCVs. In Japan, installation of the refueling stations is planned at a hundred locations in 2015, and a thousand locations by 2025.
Related Reports:
・Honda introduces three types of HV; Mitsubishi shows EV-derived PHV (Oct. 2013)
・Toyota aggressively adds all-new models to HV lineup (Oct. 2013)
Free membership registration allows you to read the rest of the article for a limited time.
