Because slow progress in setting up hydrogen fuelling stations could limit the sale of its fuel-cell vehicles, Honda Motor is considering developing pure electric cars as well, its chief executive has said.
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Honda has been a strong proponent of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as the most promising zero-emission alternative to today’s combustion engine cars, dismissing plug-in electric cars as a short-range option that uses too many expensive batteries, Reuters noted.
It currently has a small fleet of ‘production’ FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicles on test in Japan and the US.
But, in what the news agency said was the strongest indication yet that Honda may be changing its tune, CEO Takanobu Ito said it may need pure electric cars to meet California’s regulations for automakers to offer a certain ratio of zero-emission cars in the coming years.
“I don’t doubt for a second that fuel-cell vehicles are the ultimate green car,” Ito told Reuters in an interview on Thursday, noting that such hydrogen-fuelled vehicles achieved a driving range similar to that of petrol cars.
“But the infrastructure for hydrogen is moving slowly, and there’s a possibility we won’t be able to get sufficient sales volumes [in California], even if we tried.”
Ito stopped short of saying if or when Honda would actually launch a plug-in electric vehicle. Domestic rivals Toyota and Nissan Motor have announced plans to offer EVs globally by 2012 – Nissan has already unveiled its leaf which launches in initial markets next year.
If the need arose, Honda could work with battery partner GS Yuasa to develop lithium-ion batteries for EVs, Ito told Reuters.
In the next 20 to 30 years, Ito said he expected virtually all cars to be ‘hybridised’, while for the nearer, five- to 10-year term, Honda would put much of its efforts into improving fuel economy on pure petrol cars.
Ito, who took up his post in late June, said the remodelled Step Wgn minivan, to be launched in Japan next week, was an example of that, with a larger body but better fuel efficiency than its predecessor.
Ito also noted the automaker was barely forecasting a profit this year, lamenting the dollar’s fall below JPY90 this week.
“We’re in pretty dire straits already right now,” he said. “A dollar-yen in the 80s would be too painful.”
Honda has set its dollar rate assumption for the second half of the financial year, from October to March, at JPY90, forecasting an operating profit in the period of JPY80bn (US$890m) thanks largely to the relatively healthy motorcycle business.
