April 4th 2002
Honda Fuel Cell Car Still Has Long Way To Go
Author:
YUMIKO NISHITANI
Source:DOW
JONES NEWSWIRES
TOKYO -- It will likely be decades before Japan's
second-largest carmaker Honda Motor Co. (HMC or 7267) launches into mass
production of fuel cell-powered vehicles, a senior engineer at Honda said
Thursday.
At
a test-drive event for Honda's "FCX-V4" fuel cell-powered passenger car,
Honda R&D Co. Executive Chief Engineer Tomoyuki Sugiyama told Dow Jones
Newswires he only expects single-digit initial yearly sales of the car.
The company aims to improve and start selling the FCX-V4 by the end of
2003.
"It
won't be a practical car to own - there will be major limitations as to
where it can go, due to a very small number of stations to supply hydrogen"
for fuel, he said.
Only
governmental organizations are expected to buy the FCX-V4 initially, Sugiyama
said.
Honda received approval on March 1 from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for the public road testing of the FCX-V4. It is the fourth fuel cell-powered car Honda has developed and will be the first to hit the market.
The
FCX-V4, which carries a 350-atmosphere high-pressure hydrogen tank, allows
traveling up to 315 kilometers per full charge of fuel, 75% further than
its predecessor, the FCX-V3.
Unlike
the first two versions, the latest version of Honda's environmental-friendly
vehicle carries a capacitor, which stores power that is charged when the
car is at a halt. The power stored in the capacitor enables the car to
respond faster when the driver steps on the accelerator.
In
the ongoing race among global automakers to develop cleaner-emission vehicles,
only Honda and Volkswagen AG (G.VOW) have adopted the capacitor-assisted
fuel cell system, another Honda official said.
In
order to support the private sector's efforts to replace conventional cars
with environmentally-friendly vehicles, the Japanese government will set
up hydrogen stations in five locations by March 2003. However, as all of
the stations will be in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the cars won't be
able to travel far from Tokyo.
Honda
also has many issues to resolve regarding the FCX-V4's development and
distribution.
The
company is in the process of checking and adjusting the car's safety features,
noise emission and fuel cell cooling functions, said Yozo Kami,Honda's
fuel-cell project leader.
In
addition, "we haven't decided how to distribute the FCX-V4. We also have
the issue of after-sale services to consider. Dealers currently don't have
the expertise to repair the car," Sugiyama said.
"It
will be at least twenty years before conditions will be ready for individuals
to own a fuel cell car and we can start mass production," he said.
Sugiyama
couldn't give precise details on the per-unit cost of making the FCX-V4
or Honda's overall budget for developing fuel cell cars. The R&D executive,
however, said it costs several hundred million yen to make each FCX-V4
and cited Honda Motor President Hiroyuki Yoshino as saying the company
won't start mass production of the vehicle without cutting the per-unit
production cost to one hundredth of the current level.
"I
can't reveal our budget for fuel cell car development. But I can tell you
that we are still using far more resources on the development of
gasoline-powered cars that we can sell and bring in profits from. We haven't
put so much emphasis on the fuel cell car project as to allow it to determine
the company's survival chances," Sugiyama said.
He
expects Honda's humanoid robot "ASIMO," which recently made an appearance
at the New York Stock Exchange for the daily opening bell, to reach
individual consumers before its fuel cell car does.
Honda aims to further develop ASIMO so that it can be used in the next 10 years for chores such as in-home nursing and house-sitting, with a more affordable price tag. The ASIMO is currently leased to companies for Y20 million per year.
(This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires)
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