Wed, Feb 18, 2015 page15

• Electric cars face fuel-cell challenge

  • AFP, TOKYO
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  Green-car skeptics take note: Japan now has more electric vehicle charging spots than gas stations.

  The country’s No. 2 automaker, Nissan Motor Corp, says there are now 40,000 charging units — including those inside private homes — across the nation, compared with 34,000 gas stations.

  While gas stations have multiple pumps and can service many more cars, the figures underscore efforts to boost green-vehicle infrastructure in Japan, long a leader in a sector that remains tiny globally.

  

  A Nissan Leaf car is charged in Tokyo on Nov. 20, 2012.

  Photo: Bloomberg

  Nissan is betting on growing demand for electric cars, while rival Toyota Motor Corp said it has been swamped by orders for its first mass market hydrogen fuel-cell car, the Mirai sedan.

  Fuel-cell cars are seen as the Holy Grail of green cars as they are powered by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, which emits nothing more harmful than water from its exhaust.

  However, a limited driving range and lack of refueling stations have hampered development of the green-car sector, which environmentalists say could play a vital role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming.

  Electric cars are still a tiny portion of global sales. Nissan needed three years to sell 100,000 of its Leaf EV. Tesla Motors Inc’s record was 31,655 of the Model S last year in an industry that sells more than 100 million vehicles a year. The company plans to sell 55,000 this year and is still losing money.

  There is even an open question about EVs being the right choice for the future, said Eric Noble, president of The CarLab, an automotive consulting firm in Orange, California.

  The California Air Resources Board, whose clean-air rules for cars tend to be adopted by many other states and also influence US federal emissions standards, requires automakers to produce a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles for sale in the state. They can be hydrogen fuel cell-powered, electric or hybrid vehicles.

  Changes to the regulations now favor hydrogen-powered vehicles because they can be refueled faster than electric cars can be recharged and can often drive longer before needing to fill up. Also, state tax rebates for hydrogen fuel cells can be double that given to buyers of electric cars.

  These incentive programs might start to turn the tide toward hydrogen over electric drive, Noble said.

  Both Toyota and Honda plan to sell fuel-cell vehicles in the US this year. Toyota has wound down its electric RAV4 sport utility vehicle and Honda stopped selling the electric Fit subcompact.

  “Another risk is that electric vehicles are in danger of being passed over,” Noble said. “You could argue that Honda and Toyota are already doing that.”

  While electric cars may turn out to be the wave of the future, there is no question that they are a tough business now.

  Apple Inc has decided to move ahead with its Project Titan project and build an electric car. The company has put a few hundred people, including some new hires from the auto industry, on a skunkworks project to do the early development of an electric vehicle resembling a minivan.

  Such a car could challenge Tesla, Nissan, General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and other companies.

  Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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