Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars and Bus hit the road in California

source: EREN News 2002.12.03

Honda Motor Company, Ltd. and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. both
delivered their first fuel-cell-powered cars to customers in
California on Monday.

The City of Los Angeles took delivery of a Honda FCX, a hydrogen-
fueled vehicle that seats four, has a range of up to 170 miles, and
performs much like a standard Honda Civic. Air Products and
Chemicals, Inc. will provide the hydrogen fuel and fueling
infrastructure for the city. Los Angeles is leasing the vehicle for
$500 per month and plans to lease four more in 2003. Honda plans to
lease about 30 vehicles in California and Japan in the next two
years, but has no current plans for mass-market sales of fuel cell
vehicles. See the December 2nd press release on the Honda Web site
at: <http://www.hondanews.com/forms/events/index.html?kw=fcx>.

Meanwhile, Toyota delivered two of its hydrogen-fueled Toyota FCHVs
to the University of California (UC), Irvine and UC Davis. Based on
the Highlander, a mid-sized SUV, the FCHV combines improved
aerodynamics, aluminum components, and a 109-horsepower motor to
achieve excellent acceleration and a range of up to 180 miles. Both
cars are under 30-month leases to the universities, which are
leaders in fuel-cell research. Toyota plans to deliver four more
FCHVs to the universities next year. The company has provided more
than $2 million in research grants to UC campuses over the past five
years, and plans to double that figure over the next three and a
half years. See the December 2nd press release on the Toyota Web
site

The combined efforts of Toyota, Honda, the City of Los Angeles, the
California Fuel Cell Partnership, and state organizations like the
California Air Resources Board and South Coast Air Quality
Management Board are leading to the establishment of hydrogen
fueling infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Los
Angeles and Orange counties. According to Toyota, these two "model
communities" will have a network of six refueling stations up and
running within the next six months. Toyota's contribution includes a
new refueling station at Toyota's national headquarters in Torrance,
40 miles northwest of the UC Irvine campus. See the Stuart Energy
press release

A fuel-cell-powered bus already hit the streets in Southern
California in mid-November. The SunLine Transit Agency, which serves
the Palm Springs area, is operating a 50-foot "ThunderPower" bus,
built through a joint venture of Thor Industries and ISE Research.
The hydrogen-fueled bus draws on a 75-kilowatt fuel cell from UTC
Fuel Cells and is serving a route that will demand 100 miles of
travel each day. UTC is also working with the Northeast Advanced
Vehicle Consortium to develop a 200-kilowatt fuel cell power plant
for buses. See the UTC Fuel Cells press releases at:
<http://www.utcfuelcells.com/news/archive/111402.shtml> and
<http://www.utcfuelcells.com/news/archive/111102.shtml>.

The market for fuel cell vehicles has yielded good news for Ballard
Power Corporation in recent weeks. Ballard received a $1.88 million
order for its Mark 902 fuel-cell engines from an undisclosed
automotive company in late November, then signed a three-year supply
agreement with Honda on Monday. And according to a new study from
Allied Business Intelligence (ABI), the Ballard news is part of a
trend: ABI predicts a rapidly growing market that will reach 800,000
fuel cell vehicles worldwide by 2012. See the press releases from
Ballard and ABI, all in PDF format only, at:
<http://www.ballard.com/pdfs/27%20New%20Auto.PDF>,
<http://www.ballard.com/pdfs/28%20Honda.PDF>,
<http://www.alliedworld.com/pdfs/afc02pr.pdf>.