HONDA BOSSES BELIEVE hydrogen fuel cell technology still has a role to play in the future of the passenger car once the ‘battery EV era’ is fully under way.
Honda has long been a proponent of the hydrogen car, launching the FCX Clarity in 2008 and following it up with a second generation, which ran from 2017 to 2022.
More recently, it has launched a fuel cell version of the current CR-V in the US and Japan, which was co-developed with General Motors. Now, the brand suggests that FCEV cars could become a mainstay of its global line-up.
Katsushi Inoue, who heads Honda’s electrification efforts following stints leading the brand in Europe and China, gave Autocar his vision for the future of hydrogen cars.
“What I have in my mind is that the [battery] EV era comes first, and the next phase is fuel cell cars. The fuel cell era might take some more time,” he said, suggesting 2040 is more realistic than 2030.
Tellingly, the company has said 100% of its car sales will be either battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell by 2040, although it has not said what it expects the split to be.
Inoue said slow sales for the original Clarity model are not a sign that the market will never exist for such a car. “In those days, the infrastructure was not good enough, and it was an experimental model and the cost was too high,” he said. “So it’s not our only commercial basis – but with the commercial vehicles, the FCEV powertrain is going to be expande
