This is a story that has slipped under the radar of most mainstream news outlets and there are very few details about this event. But, Toyota, Nissan and Honda have decided that today they will take their fuel cell cars on a 1,100 kilometer (683 miles) fun run.
The cars will leave Toyko and travel to Fukuoka and will demonstrate that their refueling range is similar that or exceed that of gasoline-powered cars. The cars participating in this run will be the Honda FCX Clarity, Toyota FCHV-adv, and Nissan X-Trail FCV.
The Japanese fuel cell fun run started today after senior government officials and Toyota, Nissan and Honda executives held a ceremony at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo to mark the occasion.
The fuel cell vehicles have hit the roadways today and are expected at the Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture on Thursday. Over the two-day journey the hydrogen cars will refuel twice and the drivers will stay overnight in Osaka.
I’ve talked about the Japanese Hydrogen Highway before and especially the expansion of Japan’s hydrogen highway system. This event will help promote and prove to the Japanese people that the future of hydrogen cars is very, very close.
Kevin,
Thanks for writing about this. I’m also very surprised there isn’t more news about this story.
It will be quite interesting to see the results of the event (e.g. the real-world miles per kilogram and range for each of the three vehicles). I wonder if the car companies are waiting until the end of the drive to issue a press release.
Hopefully there will be an announcement at some point in the next day or two that summarizes the trip.
Greg Blencoe
“Hydrogen Car Revolution” blog
Hi
Thank you for your article about this event.
Details about this event are already open to the public at the websites of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Japan and the JHFC Project.
But all of the results are not opened in English, so please wait several days.
I’ll show you the points about the results below.
Total trip distance:
706.7 miles
Total trip time:
19 hours (between 2 days)
Number of fueling:
2 times
(at Aichi prefecture and Okayama prefecture)
Mileage:
Average: 73.5 miles per kilogram-hydrogen
(average of the 3 FCVs)
Maximum: 82 miles per kilogram-hydrogen
(I don’t know which FCV’s value)
And Maximum Tank Capacity of 3 FCVs is 6 kilogram-hydrogen.
FCVWJ
Greg, thanks for your comments and thanks for blogging and getting the word out about hydrogen cars.
FCVWJ thanks for sending in the interesting link and additional information for this story.
Kevin,
You’re very welcome. And I appreciate the kind words. Things are starting to get exciting with hydrogen fuel cell cars!
FCVWJ,
Thanks for the information about the results of the event. I’ll check out the links that you posted.
It is very impressive that the average fuel economy for the three vehicles was 73.5 miles per kilogram of hydrogen!
Hi,
that is very impressive. In km per kg it’s 117,6 km/kg!
I also would like to point out that internal combustion engines (ICE) can reach similar economy when converted to hydrogen if the conversion is properly done. BMW proved that last summer (2008)
It seem to me that this path would lead to a faster track to hydrogen usage by the masses. ICE technology is already here, it is cheap and could be introduced by
any car maker in a few years time.
BMW already has the car but it’s still not on the market. Why?
– Is it because a hydrogen ICE is so simple that almost anyone can fix it? No need for an advanced ECU. No need for expensive Brand work shops.
I think it’s time to move H-ICE forward and if the car manufacturers aren’t interested, then we have to do it ourselves.
The main problem with H-ICE and fuel cell vehicles is not the vehicles, it’s the supporting infrastructure. The BMW Hydrogen 7 takes liquid hydrogen of which there are very few refueling stations in the U. S. – most in the U. S. are compressed hydrogen pumps. Germany I would guess would have more liquid hydrogen pumps than the U. S. and the BMW would have a better chance rolling out there first.