Business trend
A total of 11 world’s
leading automakers including Toyota and GM basically agreed to standardize the
specifications of the connector between a storage tank and a vehicle of the
hydrogen supply system. They are scheduled to formulate the standards to be
certified by the International Standardization Organization (ISO) within the
year. They move closely together to spread fuel cell vehicles. They expect fuel
cell vehicles to spread substantially after 2015. Hydrogen that is the power
source needs hyperbaric storage, and establishing a network of hydrogen
stations like gas stations is vital to spread fuel cell vehicles. Without
standardized connectors, it will be hard to establish a mass production system.
With the basic
agreement on standardization, leading automakers are expected to strengthen their
efforts to develop fuel cell vehicles extensively. Daimler-Benz will reportedly
increase 20 hydrogen stations in alliance with the leading industrial gas
company in Germany. With the joint development with Nissan-Renault, the company
is scheduled to put a fuel cell vehicle in Japan toward 2015. In Japan, a total
of 13 companies including Toyota and JX Nippon Oil & Energy will jointly
work on establishing a network of hydrogen stations beginning in 2013. This
move is in line with the mitigation of safety regulations involved in hydrogen
tanks, they plan to increase the number of gas stations more than 6 times to
100 stations mainly along super express highways in the metropolitan areas.
The fuel cell
vehicle is expected to be the ultimate eco car because it travels while
generating electricity, whereas an electric vehicle travels with the stored
electricity. In addition, it emits only water. Because hydrogen has 10 times
higher energy density than the in-car lithium-ion battery, it has longer travel
distance than an electric vehicle and supplying hydrogen does not need much
time as charging an electric vehicle. These competitive advantages of the fuel
cell vehicle over the electric car are supposedly the driving force to prompt
world’s leading automakers to set up standards in a hurried manner, unlike in
the case of the electric vehicle.
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