Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the oldest players in the hydrogen fuel cell segment, but it is already behind Hyundai Motor in terms of sales volumes, and considers the expansion of Chinese automakers in this segment, which intend to repeat their success in the electric vehicle market, as the source of the strongest threat.
Image source: Toyota Motor
In essence, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are also electric vehicles, but their main source of energy is hydrogen stored in cylinders under high pressure, which, when processed in the power plant, allows for the production of electricity to power traction electric motors. The president of the Toyota Motor division responsible for the development of the hydrogen direction, in an interview with the Financial Times, said that Chinese competitors are preparing to bypass representatives of other countries in the segment of light hydrogen transport.
As Mitsumasa Yamagata explained, Chinese companies are already leading the development of hydrogen fueling infrastructure for commercial vehicles, offering fuel at a three-fold lower price and rapidly expanding the network of such fueling stations. China already dominates the global market for commercial hydrogen fueled vehicles.
The combined efforts of market participants are helping to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel, Yamagata explained. China has made the most progress in developing hydrogen trucks, as the local government is converting major logistics routes in the world’s largest market to hydrogen commercial vehicles. In this area, hydrogen provides both high-speed range restoration and a smaller mass of energy sources compared to traditional lithium batteries.
The authorities of other regions are still lagging behind China in the pace of developing hydrogen transport infrastructure. In particular, with Donald Trump coming to power in the United States, the risks of cutting funding for specialized projects are increasing, in Japan the young industry is being subsidized very slowly, and the European Union’s plans to import up to 10 million tons annually by the end of the decade are recognized by experts as unrealistic.
However, the future of hydrogen transport in China itself is not so clear. Although commercial transport sales last year doubled to a record 230,000 units, this was mainly due to battery-powered trucks and electric buses. However, according to Interact Analysis, 7,069 hydrogen trucks and buses were sold in China last year, which exceeds the statistics of all other countries combined. Last month, China’s first interregional route with hydrogen refueling infrastructure, a total of 1,150 km, connecting Chongqing and Qinzhou, was inaugurated.
Image source: Toyota Motor
According to a Toyota spokesman, one kilogram of hydrogen in China costs between $3.50 and $7, which is four times cheaper than in Japan, although this is achieved through the active use of secondary products from the metallurgical industry, which is not known for its environmental friendliness. China’s potential leadership in the field of hydrogen transport is not inevitable, according to Yamagata, but urgent measures are required to prevent it: “We do not have much time, and it is important to quickly increase the pace.”
Toyota is one of the pioneers of the hydrogen direction in passenger transport, the company has been engaged in this topic for more than 30 years and has already sold 28,000 hydrogen Mirai sedans since their debut in 2014. However, most of them were sold under a leasing scheme and were not in private use. Honda and BMW also showed interest in this topic, but the former did not rush to revive the Clarity model, although it presented the concept of the hydrogen crossover CR-V, as well as a hybrid version of the car, which can be recharged from the electric grid and refueled with hydrogen.
Toyota has refocused its hydrogen vehicle efforts on the commercial segment in recent years. In China, it has to rely on joint ventures with local powertrain manufacturers like SinoHytec. The Japanese corporation will use the Chinese market as a testing ground in developing this area, in order to then scale successful solutions worldwide, according to a Toyota representative.