Honda will start making a new hydrogen fuel cell system that it and GM worked on together.
In order to grow its hydrogen business, Honda Motor Co. (7267.T) of Japan said it will start making a new hydrogen fuel cell system that it and General Motors Co. (GM.N) worked on together this year. Sales will gradually increase over the next 10 years.
Honda said on Thursday that it wants to sell about 2,000 units of the new system per year by the middle of this decade. By 2030, the company wants to sell 60,000 units per year.
The Japanese car company wants to use its new system in more places than just its own fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), such as heavy trucks, stationary power plants, and construction equipment.
Honda’s senior managing executive director, Shinji Aoyama, told reporters at a company event in Tokyo that the company’s joint venture with GM will start making hydrogen fuel cell systems this year.
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The company wants the “next-generation” system to last more than twice as long as its older fuel cell system and to cost less than half as much.
Tetsuya Hasebe, general manager of Honda’s hydrogen business development division, said, “Commercial vehicles are used all over the world, and it’s likely that they’ll become electric just like passenger cars.”
He also said that this would likely cause a split between trucks that use batteries and those that use fuel cells.