{"id":88262,"date":"2015-01-22T09:15:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=88262"},"modified":"2015-01-22T09:15:36","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:15:36","slug":"japan-investing-big-in-hydrogen-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/01\/japan-investing-big-in-hydrogen-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Investing Big in Hydrogen Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Toyota Mirai, the maker's hydrogen fuel cell car, represents its future rather than electric vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As part of its broader shift away from nuclear power, Japan is turning towards hydrogen, a lightweight gas some proponents like to call the fuel of the future.<\/p>\n

The government has approved an investment of 45.2 billion yen, or $385 million, to set up a network of hydrogen refueling stations that will be in place in time for the 2020 Olympics in the capital city of Tokyo. The money also will provide subsidies for the development of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.<\/p>\n

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The Leader in Global Automotive News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to introduce a hydrogen era,\u201d Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after test driving the new Toyota Mirai.<\/p>\n

Just going into production, the debut of the Mirai marks the first time the maker has offered a fuel-cell vehicle, or FCV, to the public. Toyota officials are turning to hydrogen because, they contend, it offers a number of key advantages over the other zero-emissions technology, battery power. A tank of the lightweight gas can power a Mirai up to 300 miles, and refueling takes less than five minutes \u2013 compared to 100 miles range and many hours to recharge with most battery cars.<\/p>\n

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After a being delayed due to the Takata airbag problem, FCV production will start next year. Photo credit: Len Katz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other manufacturers are using similar arguments as they also push into hydrogen power. Honda revealed the final, production-ready version of its new FCV fuel-cell vehicle at the Detroit auto show last week. It will go on sale in 2016. Korean carmaker Hyundai launched a fuel-cell-powered version of its Tucson SUV in 2014. And other makers, including General Motors and Mercedes-Benz are considering production FCVs, as well.<\/p>\n

The big challenge is the lack of a hydrogen infrastructure. The Hyundai, Toyota and Honda vehicles will all be sold in Southern California, where there is a small network of refueling stations. But traveling much out of the region would be difficult until California moves forward on a plan to establish a statewide network of pumps open to the public.<\/p>\n

The state is providing a large investment to support that plan, but Toyota and Honda have both announced corporate involvement in commercial hydrogen refueling ventures in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Bob Carter, Toyota\u2019s vice president of automotive operations in the U.S. told TheDetroitBureau.com the maker hopes that by building up an infrastructure more buyers will shift to hydrogen. In turn, as sales of hydrogen cars grow that should spur the energy industry to pump money of its own into setting up new filling stations.<\/p>\n

Toyota has confirmed it will also participate in infrastructure development in Japan, as well.<\/p>\n

(Toyota takes top sales spot in 2014. For more, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But the big push is likely to come, at least initially, from the Japanese government. The stated goal is to have 6,000 hydrogen cars on the road in time for the 2020 Olympics, along with 35 refueling stations around Tokyo, according to Makoto Fujimoto, head of planning at the city\u2019s energy department.<\/p>\n

As much as 80% of the cost of those service stations will be covered by the government, noted a report by the Bloomberg news service. Purchases of fuel-cell vehicles also will be subsidized by the government.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for details about Toyota’s tease of its new RND concept.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About 60% of the orders Toyota has so far received for the Mirai have come from government and corporate fleets in Japan. The maker had originally expected just 400 orders for the entire year. That led Toyota President Akio Toyoda to last week to tell reporters the company may bump up production for the fuel-cell vehicle.<\/p>\n

Not everyone is convinced hydrogen power is the way to go. Elon Musk, the CEO of one-time Toyota ally Tesla Motors, has denounced fuel-cell technology as an alternative to battery power. Others note that while hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe it is not freely available on Planet Earth. Instead, it must be released from some other compound, whether by cracking a fossil fuel such as petroleum, natural gas or coal, or by electrolyzing water.<\/p>\n

(To see more about Toyota’s plans to “stay the course” toward 54.5 mpg CAFE standard, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But splitting water into its components \u2013 hydrogen and oxygen \u2013 requires significant energy that could prove a problem for a country moving away from its post-War dependence on electricity generated from nuclear power. How Japan intends to expand its supply of hydrogen remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared it is time to introduce the “hydrogen era” after test driving Toyota’s Mirai fuel cell vehicle. The maker is putting the car into production, but it’s limited by the lack of supporting infrastructure, such as fueling stations, according to TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88262"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=88262"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=88262"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=88262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}