On Your Next Trip To Tokyo, Take the Fuel Cell Car
Yesterday, I changed my base of operations to Tokyo for a month to escape the Chinese New Year festivities (i.e. one month of WW III worthy fireworks, combined with closed shops and restaurants.) If I would have stuck it out a few days longer, I could have enjoyed a ride in a fuel cell vehicle.
Starting on January 29, Toyota Motor will provide “TOYOTA FCHV-adv” (as in “fuel cell hybrid vehicle-advanced”) vehicles to a new car service from Tokyo’s Narita Airport. Toyota is acting upon a request from the Research Association of Hydrogen Supply/Utilization Technology (HySUT), a participant in the Hydrogen Highway Project run by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
Toyota has already provided a hydrogen-powered bus for use on a commercial route between central Tokyo and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The idea is to gather data for the big hydrogen roll-out in 2015.
Detailed data of the still experimental FCHV-adv can be found in the Toyota press release. The car uses the same core hybrid synergy drive as the Toyota Prius, except that the power is delivered by a hydrogen-fed fuel cell. What is most impressive: Despite the definite SUV-like characteristics of the vehicle (the FCHV-adv is based on a Toyota Highlander), there will be not even the slightest pang of range anxiety in this car. With a full high-pressure tank of hydrogen, it can go for 830km (515 miles) before it needs a fill-up.
No, there is no on-board toilet.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Fuel cells have been around for awhile, the problem has always been price and reliability. They can certainly build a nice functioning test vehicles for a million $ a piece or what ever the cost may be, but until that price comes down from the sky they have little practical value.
Without any idea how a hydrogen-driven engine performs under different conditions or what it might cost to fill the tank, it's hard to evaluate that mileage. Ah... 156L of hydrogen... so the "fuel tank" isn't much larger than the 30 gallon tank in my Suburban, for roughly equivalent mileage. That's interesting. I can't say a 515 mile range is as impressive as Bertel seems to find it. My Suburban can do nearly 500 miles on a full tank of the cheapest, crappiest (low-corn) gasoline I can get my hands on. I bet if I actually paid attention to the mileage (easy on the gas pedal, etc) I could easily manage 515 miles. With an engine that has far more power available, in a truck that is larger and seats more people, etc. Which doesn't mean I'm opposed to hydrogen vehicles. I think it's the most interesting of the alternative energy options -- if the fuel is as cheap as one might expect hydrogen to be. I do wonder how people will react to things like the inevitable and relatively quick leak-down of the fuel system. I read somewhere that a fully fueled hydrogen vehicle will leak almost the entire fuel-load from sitting idle for just a week. Those are damned tiny atoms stored under enormous pressure, and we'll just never seal up any consumer-grade system well enough to prevent it. How will Joe Sixpack react? What happens when you park the car with low fuel on a Friday evening, spend the weekend at home, and the tank is empty on Monday morning? It'll also be interesting to see how they've solved the long-term problems, hydrogen embrittlement in particular...
I'll stick to the Narita Express; that of the friendly lady with the cart full of interesting food and drinks...and not having to deal with road traffic.
Story is only worth a yawn. Fuel cell vehicles are out there. Have been for awhile. Toyota isn't the first to do this. But I do have a question. Is this Toyota's first fuel cell vehicle?