The city of Tokyo plans to spend JPY45.2bn on fuel cell vehicle subsidies and hydrogen stations for the 2020 Olympics as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to reduce the nation’s reliance on nuclear power.
A Bloomberg report in the Japan Times said 35 hydrogen fuel stations would be built in the capital, which is in negotiations with Toyota and Honda to put 6,000 hydrogen cars on its roads by 2020, citing Makoto Fujimoto, who heads the planning team at the metropolitan government’s energy department.
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The nation is investing in hydrogen power as it continues to struggle with the aftermath of its worst peacetime nuclear disaster, in 2011. Spending on hydrogen infrastructure comes as Tokyo’s government is under pressure to rein in costs as it prepares to host the quadrennial games.
“The Olympics are a good opportunity to showcase new technologies,” Hiroshi Takahashi, a research fellow at Fujitsu Research Institute told Bloomberg.
“It’s also a significant chance to attract new investment and update the city’s transportation system to make it fuel-cell friendly.”
Last week, Toyota delivered its first Mirai FCV to Abe. After a short test drive at his official residence, Abe declared it was “very comfortable” and said he wants “all ministries and agencies to have” the Mirai.
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By GlobalData“It’s time to introduce a hydrogen era,” he said.
The central government is planning hydrogen distribution facilities as it supports Toyota, which pioneered hybrid vehicles, to help popularise what the carmaker sees as the next generation of auto technology. Abe has said Japan intends to create a “hydrogen society” with cells powered by the element also powering homes and office buildings.
Bloomberg noted Japan’s fuel-cell subsidies are bigger than incentives China, the US and Europe are offering for electric vehicle buyers. They are also more than triple the JPY950,000 of incentives Japan offers buyers of Mitsubishi’s all electric i-MiEV.
The country is paying JPY10bn a day to buy natural gas after the triple reactor meltdown forced the shutdown of all of its nuclear plants, Fujimoto said.
Under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s plan, the city aims to have 100,000 hydrogen passenger vehicles, 100 hydrogen buses and 80 refueling stations by 2025. Buyers of FCVs in Tokyo will be entitled to about JPY1m of subsidies on top of the JPY2m provided by the central government, he said.
More than 80% of the costs of building hydrogen stations will be subsidised by the Tokyo government, capping the costs for operators at JPY100m, or about the same as building a petrol station, according to Fujimoto. The government may cover the costs entirely for small-business owners, he said.
Toyota president Akio Toyoda told reporters last week that the automaker was considering increasing production after receiving about 1,500 Mirai orders — 60% of which are from government offices and corporate fleets — in the first month, compared with its target of 400 by the end of 2015.
The Olympics were held previously in Tokyo in 1964.
