July 23rd 2002
Ministry to set up safety standards for fuel-cell cars
Source: Kyodo News
The transport ministry plans to set up by the end of 2004 safety standards for fuel-cell motor
vehicles, which are expected to fully hit the market in 2005, ministry officials said Tuesday.
The safety standards are likely to cover areas such as the hydrogen gas
tank and the motor,
which is activated by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen,
according to
officials at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Fuel-cell motor vehicles are the epitome of environmentally friendly cars
since their only
byproduct is water.
By setting up the safety standards, the ministry hopes to promote use of
the vehicles and so
help reduce carbon dioxide in the air which causes global warming.
Currently, a safety inspection is needed for each fuel-cell motor vehicle
that is test-driven on
public roads, and only the person who requested the inspection can drive
the car.
The transport ministry plans to lift the strict regulation to allow more
people to use fuel-cell
cars by the end of this year, when trial sales of the vehicles are scheduled
to start.
Toyota Motor Corp. has announced it will start trial sales of fuel-cell
hybrid cars around the
year-end.
Honda Motor Co. may also release fuel-cell cars by the end of the year
since the company
has said it is speeding up its initial plan to release fuel-cell cars in
2003.
A joint project team of the transport ministry, the Environment Ministry
and the Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry is aiming to pave the way for common use of
fuel-cell cars by
2005.
It targets having 50,000 fuel-cell cars in use by fiscal 2010, and 5 million
by fiscal 2020.
