TOKYO (AP) — Honda is expanding using hydrogen to incorporate trucks and construction equipment, electricity for buildings and even outer space, not only cars on the roads.
Honda Motor Co. plans a latest fuel cell vehicle on the market next yr, full of a fuel cell stack developed with General Motors Co. of the U.S., its general manager, Testsuya Hasebe, told reporters Thursday.
That can lower the fee of the fuel cell stack to a 3rd of what it’s now, he said. By 2030, costs of Honda’s fuel cells will turn into comparable with diesel engines, Hasebe said.
The brand new fuel cell stack, which charges faster than previous versions, can be produced in Ohio, then roll out to other North American and Japan sites, said Arata Ichinose, its operating executive.
All of the world’s automakers, including newcomers like Tesla, are coming up with electric vehicles and those who run on fuel cells and hybrid systems, which switch forwards and backwards between a gas engine and a green technology.
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Fuel cells are powered by hydrogen and are emissions-free.
“In comparison with electric batteries, fuel cells are efficient in producing energy and in order that they offer an excellent emission-free solution,” said Hasebe, who oversees the event of the hydrogen business at Honda.
Honda was among the many pioneers in fuel cells, showing a prototype automobile in 1998, and its first market product in 2002.
Honda plans to offer its fuel stack to JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, this nation’s equivalent of NASA. In using hydrogen for industrial trucks, Honda is working with Japanese truck maker Isuzu Motors and has begun tests with Dongfeng Motor in China. Honda’s fuel cell began providing electricity to a Honda site within the U.S. this month.
Honda’s announcement on fuel cells underlines how Japanese automakers have for years insisted on working on various solutions to climate change, not only electric vehicles.
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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