To address the problem of refueling, Honda will consider a packaged deal of providing a portable hydrogen station for every 20 to 30 fuel cell vehicles sold.
Advertisement
It’s as simple as putting the hydrogen “in the fridge”, basically, but BMW and Toyota are keen to ensure the effectiveness of any trialled cooling techniques while ensuring safety is maintained during the refuelling process.
BMW’s hydrogen vehicle will likely be bigger than Toyota’s mid-sized Mirai, and the five-seat Clarity Fuel Cell launched by Honda.
“The FCV Plus Concept -presented at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show-takes the idea of hydrogen one step further”.
Honda says the Clarity’s interior, shown, is roomier than that of Toyota’s Mirai. “At a certain point there needs to be a difference between Toyota and BMW, and where things need to be separate, but until that point, anything is possible”.
One way to increase the range is to squeeze more fuel into the tank without making the tank larger, and BMW thinks a method of compressing the hydrogen is the answer.
Of course, such a auto would probably need to be fully autonomous because…actually, it could only exist in a fully autonomous society since it doesn’t look like it might successfully pass any Euro NCAP safety tests – though it would probably ace the moose test thanks to its “optimal weight balance”.
A few of the main benefits for this FCEV hydrogen fuel cell technology are the size and range. LED lights – narrower than anything we’ve seen on production Lexus cars – follow the same design ethos as any number of recent concept cars from Lexus, including the LF-NX and LF-CF concepts from years past.
Advertisement
The latest FCV has a fuel cell stack that has been downsized by 33 per cent compared to the previous version of the fuel cell stack, but with an output of more than 100kW, which is a ~60 per cent improvement. There is also a need to create a fuelling infrastructure for vehicles to fill up their tanks with oxygen. The FCV Plus concept is a one box design that makes the most of the car’s interior space thanks to the compact fuel cell powertrain design. Germany now has 50 hydrogen filling stations, by 2023 the goal is to have at least 400.
