FC EXPO 2014 and FCV launch plans

Toyota, Honda and Nissan strive for general market sales

2014/03/20

Summary

Toyota FCV Concept

 This report describes the exhibition at the 11th International Fuel Cell Exposition (FC EXPO 2014) held at Tokyo Big Sight on 26th to 28th of February 2014. The launch plans of three Japanese OEMs are also reported for market-ready fuel cell vehicles (FCV) in 2015 through 2017.

 Toyota and Honda will launch their market-ready FCVs in 2015 and Nissan will follow in 2017. The FCVs will wear price tags of less than JPY 10 million. The OEMs are making on-going efforts to reduce costs further. Concurrently, Toyota and Honda have launch plans in 2020 for their all-new FCVs that are currently being co-developed with BMW (Toyota) and GM (Honda), respectively.

 According to a progress report by Honda for its FCV development, the company is likely to achieve goals for the driving range (amount of hydrogen storage), environmental compliance (sub-freezing startability, heat control under high temperature), and power output performance (downsizing, weight reduction, dynamic performance). The company admits that further technical development is needed to achieve equilibrium among durability, warranty and cost as they affect each other.

 The Japanese government has positioned the promotion of fuel cell industries as an important pillar of the national growth strategy. The government will start providing government subsidies for constructing commercial hydrogen stations. It is also considering the possible deregulation of safety standards that are often referred to as the strictest in the world.

Related Reports:
Fuel Cell Vehicles: Three OEM groups to reduce development costs (posted in September 2013)
FCV and CNG Concepts: Toyota unveils FCV design concept (posted in December 2013)

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