Toyota Will Launch 2015 Fuel Cell Car, Volkswagen Won't

by Bertel Schmitt

June 30th, 2013 4:06 PM

toyota will launch 2015 fuel cell car volkswagen won t

We’ve been saying it for years that Toyota, along with several other automakers, will launch a hydrogen fuel cell car in 2015. Two years ago, you heard it from Toyota’s Chief Engineer Satoishi Ogiso. A month ago, Toyota’s America-chief Jim Lentz promised that “the first fuel cell sedan is coming to the U.S. in 2015.” Now, Bloomberg says that “at the Tokyo Motor Show in November, Toyota plans to show a hydrogen-powered sedan that would be sold as a 2015 model.”

Bloomberg did not unearth anything you would not already know: The 2015 fuel cell model will be expensive. Two years ago, amounts in the neighborhood of $100,000 had been mentioned, but Ogiso wanted to bring the price down. Now, Bloomberg says the fuel cell car “could be available in U.S. dealerships as soon next year for a price comparable to a mid-size BMW or Tesla Model S.”

Bloomberg says “a mass-market for hydrogen cars may be a decade or more away,” but Ogiso wanted to start going mainstream by 2020.

One company will miss the hydrogen year of 2015, and that’s Volkswagen, R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg told TTAC last week in Wolfsburg:

“We are concentrating on diesel. Fuel cell technology faces an infrastructure problem. The gas must be transported refrigerated. The total CO2 balance sheet is not so good, local emissions are quite nice. Range is also good.”

Hackenberg said that Volkswagen continues to work on fuel cell technologies, that MQB is ready is ready for it. Volkswagen focuses on diesel and thinks CNG has a future in Europe, and that hybrid seems the way to go in the U.S. and China.

#2015 #BertelSchmitt #Hydrogen #Toyota

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11 of 40 comments

Brock_Landers on Jul 01, 2013

VW: We are concentrating on diesel... That is not a honest statement. Already VW-s own turbocharged direct injection petrol engines are getting almost the same mpg than similar capacity diesels. And diesel fuel itself is more expensive. Petrol engines are cleaner and cheaper to produce. Anyone working in the automotive sector in Europe knows that the newer "clean" diesels are causing lot of headaches for the manufacturer during warranty and after warranty the headaches are transferred to the owners of the car. DPF and EGR issues just to name a few. The full list of potential problematic details is long.

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- Th009 on Jul 01, 2013
  
  Diesel fuel may or may not be more expensive -- it really depends on where you live, and how your government(s) taxes fuel.
  
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- Niky on Jul 01, 2013
  
  While modern diesels have problems a-plenty, direct injection gasoline engines aren't worry free when it comes to pump and injector failures... and those are expensive.
  
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Motormouth on Jul 01, 2013

A bifuel petrol/hydrogen vehicle can get the best of both worlds.

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- Chris724 on Jul 01, 2013
  
  This is not true. Hydrogen is the worst of all worlds. It has no benefits at all.
  
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- VA Terrapin on Jul 01, 2013
  
  @chris724 Hydrogen is much better than gas and diesel with tailpipe emissions. Fuel cells are also more efficient than internal combustion engines.
  
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W.Minter on Jul 01, 2013

"The gas must be transported refrigerated" Ulrich, apparently you've never heard of Honda's Home Energy Station? Neither has anyone of your 16,000 engineers? Nah. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Energy_Station

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- Wmba on Jul 01, 2013
  
  +1 VW admits no superiority in engineering to anyone, and could well be the poster-boy for the Not Invented Here syndrome. All this flap about MLB and MQB kits are the outward expression of this. Our esteemed editor, having been brought up in the VW way, has embraced their not very clear explanation of its advantages. So much so, I fear, that he has dismissed from his mind the way Toyota makes the Yaris at Sendai, a method he devoted a very fine article to some two years ago. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/02/toyota%E2%80%99s-secret-weapon-low-cost-car-factories/?ModPagespeed=noscript In that article are the thoughts Toyota has behind low cost car assembly. VW's system relies on massive investment in production machinery. Toyota's does not. Guess which company enjoys a higher ROI? You can read an article in a similar vein about Honda's relatively low-tech assembly methods at: http://www.sae.org/mags/aei/manuf/11362 I am afraid that, in my opinion the Germans go quite over the top on automatic assembly methods and strict obedience to a "system" designed for maximum flexibility that may well box them in a corner when conditions materially change, because the situation they did not envision actually comes to pass.
  
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- Niky on Jul 01, 2013
  
  It's much more efficient to produce hydrogen on an industrial level at the source. You're either cracking hydrogen on an industrial scale (with less losses) and are stuck transporting and storing the difficult-to-transport hydrogen, or, you're delivering natural gas from far-flung fields or remote rigs to homes and distribution centers. Of course, I prefer gas-to-liquid conversion. So far, this has proved costly, but it helps increase storage density and ease-of-transport.
  
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- Alanv on Nov 11, 2013
  
  @wmba I am not getting into spat over Germans vs rest,consider this the Prius sold some 3 million ,I am not sure it made money for Toyota as world wide it is still insignificant volume,consider the cost and that besides the ugly looks and small boot capacity the real world gains are small in fact some non hybrid cars with same interior volume are lighter on fuel, so not to knock Toyota as they showed some bravery,Most mainstream manufacturers see a place for some hybrid cars and have offered low volume models like electric only cars.I believe we are witnessing a time when a mixture of propulsion is going to make driving complex and interesting .No manufacturer has crystal ball and Toyota is simply gambling ,don't think they are pioneers or leaders in research on all topics ,you only have to look at le mans they needed an extra 16 liters of petrol and Audi still won!
  
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VA Terrapin on Jul 01, 2013

Toyota is doing this for one, maybe two reasons: 1) Toyota wants a new eco halo car now that halo around the Prius has been superceded by the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Tesla Model S, and/or 2) Toyota is building a compliance car as intimated in a link in the article above. Obviously, it's highly unlikely that a hydrogen fuel cell car will be a big success early on. As for CNG for Europe, I'm not sure why. Europe imports lots of natural gas from Russia, which is prone to disrupting shipments of natural gas to Europe for political reasons. Besides, lots of Europe is against fracking, which is a big reason why natural gas has gotten cheaper in America while overall commodity prices have risen.

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