Toyota is working to make hydrogen fuel cells more affordable
November 2, 2017Automaker predicts that fuel cell vehicles will be as affordable as hybrids by 2025
Japanese automaker Toyota believes that vehicles equipped with hydrogen fuel cells will be as affordable as their hybrid counterparts by 2025. The company has been investing heavily in clean transportation lately, going so far as to develop new solid-state battery technology to power the next generation of electric vehicles. While Toyota has become more invested in batteries, it still remains heavily focused on using hydrogen fuel cells. As such, the automaker has been working to make these energy systems more efficient and much more affordable.
Fuel cell vehicles remain expensive due to the cost of their energy systems
Toyota’s flagship hybrid vehicle, the Prius, currently costs approximately $24,370. By comparison, the automakers fuel cell vehicle, the Mirai, costs more than $58,000. The high cost of the Mirai is due to the overall cost of hydrogen fuel cells. These energy systems make use of a significant amount of platinum, which makes them quite expensive. In recent years, Toyota has been working to reduce the use of platinum in fuel cells and make these energy systems more affordable. The automaker believes that it is on track to accomplishing this goal in a relatively short amount of time.
Toyota plans to increase production as hydrogen fuel cells become less expensive
As the cost of fuel cell vehicles begins to drop, Toyota plans to increase production of its Mirai. Currently, the automaker produces approximately 3,000 unites of the Mirai every year. Toyota hopes to increase its production volume 10 times its current annual rate by 2025. Not only will future fuel cell vehicles be equipped with less expensive energy systems, the fuel cells they use will also be more efficient and boast of higher performance.
Toyota is leading the way with its fuel cell vehicles
Toyota currently stands as the largest supporter of hydrogen fuel cells in the auto industry. Other automakers have begun to show support for fuel cell systems in recent years, but Toyota is one of the very few that have actually brought fuel cell vehicles to the market. Toyota believes that hydrogen fuel cells can be used for much more transportation, as well. The company has shown that fuel cell vehicles can act as an independent energy source, making them quite useful in the event of a natural disaster.
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Platinum is not only expensive but also is not very efficient catalyst for the air electrode or cathode of the hydrogen fuel cell where oxygen reduction reaction occurs.Platinum also can easily be poisoned by impurities in the air or hydrogen that are fed to the hydrogen fuel cell. I have seen some research publications in well known scientific journals claim that alloying platinum with Ni or Co ( thus using less platinum) make the air reaction three times faster.Why not do this?