GM Launches Japan's 1st Commercial Fuel-Cell Vehicle
Date: 10-Jul-03
Country: JAPAN
As part of the Japanese government's initiative to explore the viability of FCVs, the world's largest automaker and the delivery firm will operate GM's HydroGen3 vehicles on FedEx Express's regular routes in Tokyo.
Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co, Japan's top two automakers, became the first to put the no-emissions vehicles on the road last year, but their FCVs have only been leased out to ministries and other public agencies due to the vehicles' steep price tag.
The first commercial use of an FCV, which runs on hydrogen and only emits water as a by-product, has huge implications for the future, GM and FedEx said.
"In addition to giving General Motors lots of data from how fuel cell technology handles in real world situations, it's also another step toward true commercialization - when fuel cell vehicles can be sold to consumers at prices they can afford and auto companies make a profit from them," GM said.
The two U.S. companies have no similar alliance elsewhere in the world.
By storing liquid hydrogen on board the vehicle, HydroGen3 can run for 400 km (250 miles) before refueling, GM said. That is about 100 km more than FCVs developed by Toyota and Honda. The Japanese government wants to lay the groundwork for full commercialization of FCVs by 2005, with the aim of having five million of the vehicles on the road by 2020.
Automakers, however, have said commercialization could take longer due to high development costs and lack of infrastructure, such as hydrogen fueling stations.
