There seems to be a lot of skepticism surrounding the feasible commercial success and use of fuel-cell electric vehicles.
Various reasons are quoted, but it usually all just boils down to the financial issue – the tech is still currently too expensive to sell at a profit. Japan will, however, be the only country where they actually might stand a chance, because the government will subsidize the equivalent of $28,500 of the cost of each vehicle.
This will further strengthen the naysayers’ case, since it’s highly unlikely that any other place in the world will be able to match it and therefor give fuel-cell cars the same kind of fighting chance.
VW Group Japan President, Shigeru Shoji, recently told Reuters that “it may fly within Japan, but not globally,” calling it yet another case of Japanese “Galapagos syndrome,” which, in this context, basically means products are engineered so as to only be popular on their home market…
The view of Toyota, however, is different. It’s one of the main proponents of FCVs (fuel-cell vehicles) and it thinks the greatest demand for them will come from Japan followed by Germany, California and the US East Coast.
Toyota will begin selling its first fuel-cell EV as of next year (model pictured), and at a cost of $50 per fill, which lasts for about 300 miles or 480 km, it won’t break the bank, but at the same time will be noticeably more expensive than a battery powered EV that is exclusively charged during the night when electricity rates are lowest.
The cost per fill-up is expected to go down even further in the coming years – $30 as opposed to the current $50.
Meanwhile, hybrids and regular EVs will continue to dominate the market and benefit from the tech’s head start over hydrogen.
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