The hydrogen powered car has long been considered to be the eventual successor, along with pure Electric Vehicles, of the Internal Combustion Engine. After a low profile period in the late 2000s, interest has sparked anew in the next generation of fuel cell cars, both in the US / Europe and now very much in Asia!
Hydrogen holds a special promise in Japan. OEMs such as Honda and Toyota have always been advocates for the hydrogen fuel cell technology for vehicle applications. In addition to decades of in-house R&D, the Japanese government with the back of the Development bank of Japan and major Japanese gas and energy suppliers have banded together going full-speed to expand their network of hydrogen re-fueling stations from 90 to 160 supporting the ambitious goal of having 40,000 hydrogen FCEV on Japan’s roads by 2020.
In China, hydrogen powered vehicles are not often in the spotlight but still hold considerable promise. As the world’s largest new-car market, the Chinese government is eyeing aggressive sales targets on new energy vehicles (NEV) – by 2020, 12% of vehicles sold annually in China by OEMs are to be NEVs. While massive amounts of subsidies are bringing EVs price down to boost sales, the ultimate but necessary retraction of subsidies for NEVs are in order from 2017-2020 according the government officials. However, the subsidies for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will remain unchanged.
