2015-05-26 15:04:21

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles from Honda should arrive by 2020

Honda is going to massively produce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020.

The Japanese producer has presented the new variant of its FCV concept not long ago. The head of Honda’s powertrain development describes the concept as “close to the production variant”. The automaker has been continuously investing and developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Their first one was the FCX which appeared more than eight years ago.

The new FCV concept receives power from a single hydrogen fuel cell unit. The vehicle can drive 300 miles on a single tank. The time of refilling takes only five minutes. In comparison with the FCX, the new concept’s fuel cell stack outputs power of 3.1kW/L. It is a 60% increase, nevertheless the stack’s size has been reduced by 30%.

The automaker is not ready to name the production figures for the FCV. Though, the head of powertrain development revealed that the company does not want to sell the vehicle in low volumes. Infrastructure is going to become the main hurdle with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and the producer admits it. Brachmann says that the company needs to wait from 10 till 15 years before the wide acceptance of the technology.