Honda Cars : Honda: Fuel cells offer "the ultimate zero-emission car" | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Honda is not yet ready to concede victory in the eco-friendly automobile wars to the battery electric car. Instead, Honda will continue developing its hydrogen fuel cell technology. Says Takashi Moriya, head of Honda's fuel cell operations, "Fuel-cell cars will become necessary. We're positioning it as the ultimate zero-emission car.

"While Honda is the only automaker in the States that's actually put hydrogen-powered vehicles in the hands of paying consumers (GM's Project Driveway loaned citizens a fuel cell vehicle for free for a short while), it's clear that the Japanese automaker isn't making any money on the FCX Clarity now and likely won't any time soon. Fuel cells are expensive pieces of technology, partly due to their high concentration of precious metals like platinum.

Despite the shortcomings of current hydrogen technology – which, in addition to the aforementioned high price of the vehicle itself, include difficulties in capturing the gas in an environmentally-friendly manner, storing and transporting the gas and an inadequate infrastructure – Honda believes its investment will one day pay off. In fact, Honda says it plans to have hydrogen-powered cars on the market by 2020 at costs comparable to cars running on gasoline. Toyota has said it's hydrogen car, due in 2015, will be priced "shockingly low."

Source;
http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/12/honda-fuel-cells-offer-the-ultimate-zero-emission-car/

Honda Cars : Toyota could have hydrogen fuel-cell car on the road by 2014 | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Hmmm, Honda might just be on to something with this Hydrogen business....
Honda's FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle has grabbed lots of headlines, as has BMW's combustion-powered Hydrogen7 and Mazda's rotary RE line of vehicles, including the RX-8. But Toyota is working on a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle too, and it could be on the streets by 2014.

Well, the streets of California at least. The company had previously released plans to have a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle on the road by 2015, but that schedule has been bumped up a year to meet the incentives within California's Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate.

“So much of what happens is directly related to the California ZEV mandates — they’re followed by at least 14 states, and they affect nearly half of the cars on the market in the United States. Phase IV of the mandates covers model years 2015 through 2017, so that means we could begin complying in late 2014," John Hanson, a Toyota spokesperson, told the New York Times.

California's ZEV scheme has previously influenced Toyota and other carmakers, including General Motors, to introduce zero-emissions vehicles, including the RAV-4 EV and the much-discussed EV-1.

This time around, the monetary benefits to California's program are such that it's now a valid business case for Toyota to build the hydrogen fuel-cell car.

Source;
http://www.motorauthority.com/toyota-could-have-hydrogen-fuel-cell-car-on-the-road-by-2014.html