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Updated Monday, October 26, 2009 11:08 am TWN, By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, AFP



	Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid vehicle is displayed at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show 2009 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, Japan, Thursday, Oct. 22. (Bloomberg) More Photos (2)

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Japanese automakers are revving up efforts in hydrogen car technology

TOKYO -- Imagine a car that can be refueled in minutes but emits only water. Sounds like science fiction? In fact it already exists — Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis has one. So does Honda president Takanobu Ito.

Yet while some see them as the ultimate environmentally-friendly automobiles, the high production cost means that affordable hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars are still more of a dream than reality.

Manufacturers such as Honda, however, are making a renewed push behind the vehicles which run on electricity generated by a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, belching out nothing more harmful than water vapor.

“We believe that the fuel-cell electric vehicle will be the ultimate form for automobiles in the future,” Ito said at the Tokyo Motor Show which opened Wednesday.

“It has advantages such as zero CO2 emissions in use, can travel considerable distances without refueling and can be quickly refueled,” he said.

Honda last year began delivering about 200 FCX Clarity hydrogen-powered cars on lease to U.S. and Japanese customers, including some Hollywood celebrities.

Other automakers have also been pouring money into the technology, invented in the 19th century by the Welsh scientist William Robert Grove.

Toyota, pioneer of hybrids powered by a petrol engine and an electric motor, has said it plans to launch a fuel-cell car by 2015. It is applying its hybrid technology to the vehicles, swapping the petrol engine for a fuel-cell stack.

“We can't concentrate on just one technology,” said Takeshi Uchiyamada, the chief engineer of the first-generation Prius hybrid.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda says he expects that eventually electric cars will be used for short distances and fuel-cell hybrids for long journeys.

Nissan and Mazda have developed their own fuel-cell vehicles and leased them to governments and corporate clients, while Suzuki Motor is showcasing a car, a wheelchair and scooter — all powered by fuel cells — at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The big challenge for manufacturers is to reduce the production cost of hydrogen-powered vehicles — currently several hundred thousand dollars each.

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