The development of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) that use hydrogen as a fuel for heavy-duty trucks is accelerating. Since the start of 2020, major manufacturers such as Hino, Isuzu, and Daimler have been announcing cooperation with other companies one after another.
In April, Daimler and Volvo announced that they would establish a 50-50 joint venture to develop and mass produce fuel cell heavy-duty trucks.
The main industry movements are shown in the table below.
| OEM | Actions related to FCVs |
| Isuzu | Joint research with Honda on heavy-duty trucks. |
| Hino | Joint development of heavy-duty truck with Toyota. Prototype to be made by 2020. |
| Mitsubishi Fuso | Plans to mass produce fuel cell truck by the late 2020s. Small truck concept model: The Vision F-CELL has already been unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show 2019. |
| Daimler | Establishes a 50-50 joint venture company with Volvo to develop and mass produce fuel cell trucks. |
| Toyota | Formed a partnership with Beijing Automotive Group for FCV. Also Partnering with Paccar-owned Kenworth Truck to jointly develop fuel cell truck. |
Behind the acceleration of this development is the fact that FCVs are more effective than those of EVs. Unlike a passenger car, a truck needs to have a large cargo space. In order for EV to run long distances, it needs to install a lot of batteries. But the battery takes up space and reduces the amount of luggage it can carry. EVs also take a long time to charge.
One reason for this collaboration among OEMs in FCV development is to keep development costs down and reach mass production sooner, while investment in next-generation technology development is high.
However, there are many issues that need to be addressed before FCVs are widely accepted. FCVs are complex in structure, and even passenger car models are expensive. There are only about 100 hydrogen fueling stations in Japan, much less than the estimated 8,000 quick chargers for EVs.
There also is an urgent need for cooperation among manufacturers to boost the development of infrastructure for actual use.
Source: The Nikkei (The original article was partially revised by the author.)
PSR Analysis: There are many negative opinions about FCV development. Critics question the safety of managing hydrogen and argue that FCV development costs, the price of the vehicle itself, and the cost of infrastructure development are too high. CO2 emissions during hydrogen production process are also an issue. And in the big picture, they are right.
No matter how much environmental advantage FCVs have, if the cost is not right, they will not be accepted quickly. From an environmental standpoint, FCVs are overwhelmingly superior because they only release water when driving. However, the investment in the development of FCVs is an extremely long term that will take several decades to recover.
While the corona disaster has caused a sharp decline in the performance of many companies, the companies need to be financially strong in order to pursue such long-term profits. It is possible that some manufacturers will slow down their development investment or give it up. Against this background, knowledge sharing and specific joint research and development among multiple companies will continue to be promoted in FCV development in the future. PSR
Akihiro Komuro is a Research Analyst, Far East and Southeast Asia, for Power Systems Research
