Environment The Emergence of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Competition between Toyota and Honda February 2003

Environment The Emergence of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Competition between Toyota and Honda February 2003

In the early 2000s, the automotive industry was facing a major turning point amid tightening environmental regulations: the 1997 Kyoto Conference made greenhouse gas reduction an international issue, and the development of low-emission vehicles was an urgent necessity. Following Toyota's lead with the Prius hybrid vehicle, the next innovation to attract attention was the fuel cell vehicle. in December 2002, Toyota and Honda announced the FCHV and FCX, respectively, and began leasing them to government agencies and municipalities. They competed in terms of price, with Toyota charging about 1 million yen per month and Honda around 850,000 yen. Although the vehicles have ideal environmental performance, with only water emissions, the hydrogen supply infrastructure is not yet in place, and there have been significant barriers to their widespread use. The article describes specific issues such as high-pressure hydrogen tanks, filling technology, and safety assurance, and conveys t
he enthusiasm of the engineers as if they were discussing the issues in a laboratory. Honda emphasized compact design with a small fuel cell stack, while Toyota touted durability and reliability based on its accumulated hybrid technology. The contrasting strategies of the two companies were expressed as a dialogue over the image of the car of the future. At the time, with the California ZEV regulations in the U.S. and the promotion of hydrogen research in Europe in the background, Japan's technological competition was also meant to establish its position as an environmentally advanced country in the international community. Fuel cell vehicles, though immature, emerged as a "symbol of the future," and the competition embodied the breath of the times regarding the environment and technological innovation.