Photo: Toyota
You can say some of Japan’s contributions to the automotive industry kinda failed to become popular on the global market. The kei car segment is one of them and now Volkswagen says the fuel cell cars will follow the same path.
According to a Bloomberg report, Volkswagen AG said vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells will probably have a hard time catching on in markets other than Japan. At least for the first years.
That’s because other governments won’t be as generous with incentives for such cars like Japan is, which subsidies as much as ¥3 million ($28,500/€21,630) for each unit sold. This means a Toyota FCV can be purchased at almost the same price as an entry-level luxury sedan there.
“Fuel-cell system costs are still relatively expensive so we need subsidy support from the Japanese government,” wrote Toyota spokesman Dion Corbett in an e-mail. “It’s difficult to imagine that FCVs will become widely used in the next couple of years alone.”
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization in Japan wants to make fuel cell vehicles popular by also putting hydrogen on the same price as gasoline (that gasoline price better be low or else this wouldn’t make any sense) and create 100 refueling stations by 2015.
The discrepancy becomes pretty clear when you look at what happens in the US for example. Toyota partnered with the University of California and decided that a first batch of 10,000 fuel cells will need 68 stations, out of which only 40 of them would be ready by the end of 2016. Hopes are that by 2024 there will be 100 such locations in California.
Will that be enough to determine people switch from the good ol’ hybrid to the fuel cell? We don’t think either, especially since incentives won’t make the FCV sell for $45,000, money for which you can buy a very decent hybrid car, say a Lexus ES (rated at 39 mpg city and 40 mpg highway) or even the next generation Prius, which should come with an average fuel consumption of at least 55 mpg.
That’s because other governments won’t be as generous with incentives for such cars like Japan is, which subsidies as much as ¥3 million ($28,500/€21,630) for each unit sold. This means a Toyota FCV can be purchased at almost the same price as an entry-level luxury sedan there.
“Fuel-cell system costs are still relatively expensive so we need subsidy support from the Japanese government,” wrote Toyota spokesman Dion Corbett in an e-mail. “It’s difficult to imagine that FCVs will become widely used in the next couple of years alone.”
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization in Japan wants to make fuel cell vehicles popular by also putting hydrogen on the same price as gasoline (that gasoline price better be low or else this wouldn’t make any sense) and create 100 refueling stations by 2015.
The discrepancy becomes pretty clear when you look at what happens in the US for example. Toyota partnered with the University of California and decided that a first batch of 10,000 fuel cells will need 68 stations, out of which only 40 of them would be ready by the end of 2016. Hopes are that by 2024 there will be 100 such locations in California.
Will that be enough to determine people switch from the good ol’ hybrid to the fuel cell? We don’t think either, especially since incentives won’t make the FCV sell for $45,000, money for which you can buy a very decent hybrid car, say a Lexus ES (rated at 39 mpg city and 40 mpg highway) or even the next generation Prius, which should come with an average fuel consumption of at least 55 mpg.
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