Toyota to start leasing fuel cell vehicle in Japan
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Toyota has started offering its fuel cell powered Highlander for lease by government agencies and energy related companies. The latest version, known as the FCHV-adv, uses an updated version of Toyota's in-house developed fuel cell stack which offers an extended range of over 470 miles on the latest JC08 test cycle. In 2007, Toyota engineers drove an FCHV 347 miles from Osaka to Tokyo on a single tank of hydrogen and then later drove one 2,300 miles from Fairbanks, Alaska to Vancouver, British Columbia. The FCHV-adv uses a 10,000 psi compressed hydrogen storage system and a nickel metal hydride battery pack to recapture kinetic energy during regenerative braking. Fleets that want to try out the fuel cell Toyota will be paying a hefty price. The FCHV-adv will cost $7,700 per month for a 30 month lease. The Toyota press release is after the jump.
[Source: Toyota]
PRESS RELEASE:
Toyota to Begin Leasing Advanced Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle
Tokyo - TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that on September 1 it will begin leasing its new fuel cell hybrid vehicle model, the "TOYOTA FCHV-adv*", to Japan's Ministry of the Environment.
TMC also plans to lease the TOYOTA FCHV-adv, which improves on the cruising distance and low-temperature startup performance of the previously leased "TOYOTA FCHV", to other national government entities, local governments and companies in or related to the energy industry. Lease terms are 840,000 yen (including tax) per
month for 30 months.
By leasing its fuel cell hybrid vehicles, TMC-which became the world's first automaker to commercialize a fuel cell vehicle when it began leasing the TOYOTA FCHV in Japan in December 2002-can obtain real-world feedback for further development, including efforts to improve the durability and reduce the cost of its proprietary high-performance polymer electrolyte fuel cell, the Toyota FC Stack.
This leasing, as well as TMC's participation in other cooperative efforts with the government, the energy industry and other parties concerned is aimed at helping to bring about the widespread use of fuel cell vehicles.
Vehicle Specifications
Vehicle TOYOTA FCHV-adv
Overall length/width/height (mm) 4,735/1,815/1,685
Weight (kg) 1,880
Seating capacity 5
Maximum cruising range (km)*
10-15 test cycle/JC08 test cycle Approx. 830/Approx. 760
Maximum speed (km/h) 155
Name Toyota FC Stack
Type Polymer electrolyte Fuel cell
Output (kW) 90
Type Permanent magnet
Maximum output in kW (ps) 90 (122) Motor
Maximum torque in N-m (kg-m) 260 (26.5)
Type Hydrogen
Storage system High-pressure storage tanks
Maximum storage pressure (MPa) 70 Fuel
Tank capacity (L) 156
Battery Nickel-metal hydride
Lease term 30 months
(840,000 yen per month, including consumption tax)
*
Based on TMC calculations
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gary 11:19AM (9/02/2008)
At that price, only companies will buy it, wrap it in advertising to scream out to the world about how much they "care" about the planet, and use it as a tax write-off.
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Chris M 3:05AM (9/03/2008)
I think you've overlooked the government agencies that are on a mission to squander as much taxpayer funds as possible... Of course, they pretend they are doing it for the good of society ; )
Andy 11:47AM (9/02/2008)
Man... you got to give it to the boyz at Toyota.
They can puff smoke out of every orifice simultaneously.
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meme 11:58AM (9/02/2008)
Ah, the joys of fuel cell vehicles when they're not heavily subsidized ;)
FYI, an extra $7,700 a month equates to a purchase price of somewhere around half a million dollars.
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Chris M 3:10AM (9/03/2008)
Only a half million? Either they've made a breakthrough to cut the costs in half, or they are using a really dinky underpowered fuel cell.
Hmmm, if some of the other posts are right, they ARE using an underpowered fuel cell!
Peter 12:01PM (9/02/2008)
Say what you will about their choice of technology, but you can't fault their accountants. They charge you $231,000 and after two and a half years they take the car back.
Also, with 122hp to move 1880kg, this thing literally has the power to weight ratio of a Yugo.
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jake 12:32PM (9/02/2008)
7700 bucks per month!? And you don't get to keep the car in the end. At least Toyota might get some of its R&D money back :P.
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rj 12:43PM (9/02/2008)
the car itself sounds pretty amazing - 500 mile range etc.
you guys are way to negative - costs will come down - way down
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bill 2:17PM (9/02/2008)
only thing i keep wandering about and never hear about if we going to hydrogen and would need water for this, wouldnt there be a water problem later on, i mean we have water shortages now and if everyone had a car that ran on water to me seems be a problem even greater with even less water in the world
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giyad 1:52PM (9/03/2008)
1) there is no water problem, is there? only for people who can't afford it and don't have access, ie. Africa... but that goes for everything really.
2) the water isn't wasted. hydrogen reacts with oxygen in the fuel cell to create electricity and the by product is water.
gorr 3:33PM (9/02/2008)
Bill. Taking water to make hydrogen to fuel a car don't make water dissapear. It's like washing a car water enter a machine where it is turned to hydrogen and when the fuelcell take this hydrogen it turn this hydrogen back to water. So it's water neutral. With the current education level prevalling now in society, it's the same thing then when people tauth that the earth was flat and the first guy to say that it was round was put in jail. The education level hasn't changed at all since that time and people believe all sort of big never ending nightmare as soon as you put a new idea on the table, like a car that convert water to hydrogen and move forward while doing this, even if there is many films on internet showing such cars and many people explaining it correctly how it work. Approximatelly 99.7% of the people and 99.3% of the people of this specialized site don't understand how hydrogen car works.
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Chris M 3:33AM (9/07/2008)
Approximately 33.95354% of all statistics are made up on the spot and are meaningless - LOL!
Gorr, you shouldn't believe everything that you see on youtube. There are scam artists galore in this world spinning wonderful attractive tales of things you really want to be true. Of course, wanting something to be true or even desperately needing something to be true, does not necessarily make it true - especially if it is a seductive web of lies spun by a scammer intent on picking your pocket.
An electrolysis cell producing enough H2 to run a fuel cell will require more than 3x the electrical power output of the fuel cell , leaving less than nothing to power anything else. It is even worse for Stan Meyers, an electrolysis cell big enough to supply all the fuel for an internal combustion engine would require 14 times the total power output of that internal combustion engine! It couldn't run a car, it couldn't even run itself! Stan Meyers was a convicted fraud, his car ran on a hidden fuel tank, not the little electrolysis cell bubbling merrily away to fool the dupes.
SteveCT 5:27PM (9/02/2008)
"the car itself sounds pretty amazing - 500 mile range etc.
you guys are way to negative - costs will come down - way down"
Hah. Long before fuel cell prices come down (if they ever do--more demand for platinum means higher prices, not lower ones), battery technology to match will be price-competitive with ICE cars, while hydrogen will still be only within the reach of the rich.
And long before a nationwide hydrogen refueling infrastructure is built, a nationwide system of electric car quick-chargers will accomplish the same thing, more cheaply, with less environmental damage and at greater levels of efficiency.
Hydrogen fuel cells have their uses; cars just aren't one of them.
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Chris M 4:03PM (9/07/2008)
The cost of the H2 storage alone is considerably greater than the cost of a LiIon battery pack. Also, due to less efficiency, H2 fuel will always cost considerably more than electric "fuel".
So even with a dramatic cut in fuel cell costs, H2 cars can never be cost competitive with battery electrics.
The future is electric.
meme 5:37PM (9/02/2008)
"Bill. Taking water to make hydrogen to fuel a car don't make water dissapear. It's like washing a car water enter a machine where it is turned to hydrogen and when the fuelcell take this hydrogen it turn this hydrogen back to water. So it's water neutral."
Farming doesn't make water disappear, either. It still causes water shortages. You're taking water from aquifers and/or rivers and turning it mostly into water *vapor*, which blows away.
"it's the same thing then when people tauth that the earth was flat and the first guy to say that it was round was put in jail. "
A common myth. The Greeks had known for ages that the Earth was round, and had even calculated a close estimate of its diameter. When Columbus proposed to sail around the world, he used the Greek calculations as evidence that he could pull it off. He was turned down by the scientific review board commissioned by the government not because they thought the world was flat, but because they insisted (correctly) that Columbus had misinterpreted the length of a "Stadia" (a greek unit of distance), and thus was grossly underestimating the distance he'd have to sail. They were right. Luckily for Columbus, there happed to be another large landmass for him to run into.
"Approximatelly 99.7% of the people and 99.3% of the people of this specialized site don't understand how hydrogen car works."
Here's a wild guess: you don't even know what a nafion membrane is. ;) (yes, yes, I know you're going to look it up and then come back here and pretend that you knew what it was all along). Don't tell other people what they know and don't know. Hydrogen is an atrocious fuel source from almost any angle -- economics (both purchase and operational), efficiency, environmental impacts, safety, and so on down the line.
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Serge 6:29PM (9/02/2008)
Now we are looking at some hard data. Hydrogen transportation is a fantasy.
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stevefazek 6:54PM (9/02/2008)
Batteries will come down well before fuel cells ever come down.
Batteries no longer need cobalt in them which has cut the price in half.
Fuel cells have a Ton of platinum in them and the price just keeps going up and up
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gorr 10:47AM (9/03/2008)
The platinum content is not needed anymore. A compagny just released a report yesterday that they had found a new cheap catalyst for fuelcell that replace platinum.
http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage9142.html
Another step forward against the natural ressources cartel that is on this planet since the beginning of human history. It's in the bible and one of the main message from mosus was to separate water molecule in 2 to make hydrogen fuel without pollution when there will be a lot of cars and people on earth.
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Serge 12:58PM (9/03/2008)
From what I understand, alkaline membrane fuel cells operate with ethanol as fuel, not hydrogen. Using liquid fuel eliminates one of the big problems with hydrogen: storage and transportation.
If this solution does make it out of the lab, cheaper ethanol-fueled FC could be a nice range-extender for an upcoming wave of BEVs.
Chris M 5:55PM (9/05/2008)
Problem is, even if the cost of the fuel cell is brought waay down, there is still the problem of high cost H2 fuel and the very high cost of the H2 storage tanks. 10,000 psi tanks don't come cheap.
The breakthrough is for the O2 cathode, platinum would still be needed for the H2 anode. However, this looks like just the ticket for zinc/air batteries and zinc/air fuel cells, as they don't need platinum or H2. Zinc fuel pellets are much more compact and easier to handle than H2 fuel
Serge: Alkaline fuel cells need pure H2 and pure O2 to work, they are poisoned by CO2, which converts the alkaline eletctrolyte to an inactive carbonate. IIRC, methanol fuel cells are a variation of PEM fuel cell, although solid oxide fuel cells will work for larger sizes.