Originally published July 3 2005
Honda aims to cut costs of fuel cell cars by 2020
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Japan's third-largest automaker, Honda, is planning to reduce the cost of their fuel cell cars to be roughly the same as regular gasoline-burning cars by 2020, Bloomberg.com reports, but analysts feel it will be longer before fuel cell cars can compete, unless recent American experiments with hydrogen cars are successful.
Honda Motor Co., Japan's third- largest automaker, said the company aims to lower the price of its fuel-cell operated vehicles to about the same as regular gasoline-engine powered cars by 2020.
Honda wants to cut the price of its fuel-cell vehicles to between 3 million yen ($27,500) and 4 million yen, a similar price as that of its Accord sedan, Yozo Kami, who leads the fuel cell project, said at a press conference in Tokyo today.
``The fuel-cell technology may never be used,'' if no one is able to cut production costs by 2020, Kami said.
Tighter air-pollution laws and higher fuel prices have prompted Honda, Toyota Motor Corp. and other automakers to spend billions of dollars developing fuel-cell vehicles and gasoline- electric cars.
Honda, the first automaker to release a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle in 2002, leases the FCX for 800,000 yen a month in Japan for a one-year period.
Fuel cells, used for decades in spacecraft, produce only steam as a byproduct of generating electricity.
High costs and a lack of hydrogen fueling stations have limited the technology to small test programs to date.
More demand for the vehicles may come from the U.S., because the country is setting up the hydrogen fueling stations, Kami said.
Honda's 19 customers for the FCX include the states of California and New York in the U.S. and the Hokkaido prefecture government in northern Japan.
Toyota's FCHV can travel 330 kilometers on a tank of pressurized hydrogen, at speeds of as fast as 155 kilometers per hour.
The Toyota-city based carmaker will offer 30-month leases to central and local government officials with payments of about 1.05 million yen a month starting July 1.
Honda shares fell 0.6 percent to 5,410 yen at the 3 p.m. close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml