Will hydrogen cars from Germany and Japan take off in China?

The H2 car market is already dominated by Hyundai, but rivals are also emerging.

Major Japanese and German automakers, including Toyota and BMW, are entering the Chinese hydrogen vehicle market.

Toyota plans to take the first steps of the second-generation Mirai in China by the end of the year.

To bring hydrogen vehicles to the Chinese market, Toyota plans to introduce about 100 second-generation Mirai vehicles to provide short-term car rental and taxi hailing services. The goal of this strategy is to increase consumer awareness of her H2 vehicles before retail sales begin, which is the next step.

The second-generation Toyota Mirai performs significantly better than the original model, with a maximum range of 850 km on a full H2 tank. In addition, the mileage exceeds the Hyundai Nexo’s 609km by about 200km. Toyota also announced its intention to use Mirai fuel cells in its next Hilux truck model, which will begin full-scale commercial vehicle production next year.

2018 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell

Image credit: By Lcaa9 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68338902

Toyota’s Mirai isn’t the only hydrogen car trying to enter the Chinese car market.

Also from Japan, Honda already sells the Clarity H2 passenger car. The automaker’s intention is to transform the CR-V SUV into his H2 model, which will go into production from 2024. They plan to make their SUV stand out by allowing them to plug in and charge their batteries.

European automakers such as BMW have also completed the necessary preparations before entering the Chinese car market. BMW started test production of his iX5 concept car on December 5th. The vehicle was developed jointly with Toyota and is scheduled to go on sale in Japan in 2023. And Europe’s Volkswagen, previously skeptical about the future of hydrogen cars, recently filed a fuel cell patent with a German energy company.

M93, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77382304

Hyundai Motor Co. is competitive as it is the current leader in the H2 automotive market, rolling out its first production H2 trucks in the European market and in South Korea in the form of the Xcient. In passenger cars, Hyundai has developed a third-generation fuel cell for hydrogen vehicles, powering its Nexo vehicles and his Xcient trucks.

HYDROGEN POLL: Cost and infrastructure aside, are you ready to use hydrogen as a fuel source for home heating?