Honda continues to bite into hydrogen

Although you have never been able to buy a Honda with a fuel cell on board in the Netherlands, the manufacturer has been working with fuel cells and hydrogen for decades. As early as the 1990s, Honda pushed forward a fuel cell study model and in 2008 it came with the FCX Clarity, an electric sedan with a fuel cell that had to leave the field in 2014. Two years later, Honda came up with a successor: the FCX Clarity. It was available as a regular EV and as a plug-in, but also as an FCEV. Honda has no intention of throwing away the time and effort it has put into developing fuel cell technology. In fact, the brand is enthusiastically continuing with fuel cell and hydrogen technology.

For example, Honda will market a car in 2024 that has a ‘new generation’ fuel cell system developed together with General Motors. This car – based on the new CR-V – should have considerably less expensive hardware on board than previous Honda FCEVs. According to the Japanese, the fuel cell system in that newcomer costs only a third of that of the FCX Clarity Fuel Cell. Thanks to, among other things, economies of scale by cooperating with General Motors, but also through the application of ‘innovative materialsHonda believes it is possible to reduce costs. Special: the fuel cell car also gets a plug so that you can charge it.

In 2024, Honda will send a prototype truck on the road in Japan that is equipped with fuel cells developed together with Isuzu. But there’s more. Honda also believes in the use of hydrogen for energy storage for its factories, for example. Honda wants to convert electricity generated from renewable sources into ‘green hydrogen’ for later use. Honda also foresees a future for hydrogen technology in aerospace. It starts with the sale and delivery of new fuel cell systems. The manufacturer initially aims to sell 2,000 systems per year, but hopes to have increased this to 60,000 units by 2030 and to several hundred thousand per year from 2035. These systems will be used in passenger cars, but also in commercial vehicles and machines in construction.