LOS ANGELES, Oct 11 — Toyota Motor Corp. has long held out hydrogen as the ultimate alternative to petrol for powering motor vehicles. Soon, consumers will be able to kick the tyres of its fuel cell-powered car and those of other motor vehicle makers.

To demonstrate how far hydrogen cars have come since the early 2000s, Toyota gave test drives of a small, prototype sedan in Japan this week. A similar vehicle with a different exterior will debut at the Tokyo Motor Show next month. The car, which showed quick acceleration and sharp handling, will arrive in the US, Japan and Europe as early as next year as a 2015 model.

“Earlier would have been better, but it’s taken a long time to get to this point,” said Satoshi Ogiso, the Toyota engineer managing its fuel cell development and electric-drive vehicle programmes, in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We’ve already started work on the next-generation vehicle. We can’t wait.”

While Toyota is racing to establish itself at the leader in this technology, it has a lot of company. Honda Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co., Daimler AG and General Motors Co. have poured billions of dollars into fuel cells since the 1990s, spurred by hydrogen’s allure as an abundant, low-carbon fuel.

Critics, such as Tesla Motors Inc. chief executive officer Elon Musk, deride it as too complex, too costly and not clean enough, since most hydrogen is generated from natural gas. Toyota argues that it’s a game-changer: petroleum-like performance with zero tailpipe emissions and avoiding issues of size, range and refuelling time of battery-electric motor vehicles.

Water vapour

Hydrogen fuel cells, used in spacecraft since the 1960s, make electricity and emit only water vapour. For mass-market appeal, carmakers are competing to cut the cost of fuel cell “stacks”, which use expensive precious metals, and the high-pressure carbon-fibre tanks that store fuel on the vehicle.

Solving those mean hydrogen vehicles might not be a “significant technology” until 2018 or 2020, said Alan Baum, an independent motor vehicle analyst at Baum & Associates in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

“I see fuel cells as a technology for the decade of the 2020s, with a small but growing ramp-up in the first half of the decade, not unlike what we are seeing now with EVs,” he said.

A staff member of Taiyo Nippon Sanso plugs in hydrogen nozzles to the Toyota prototype.

Toyota, based in Toyota City, Japan, had not set a volume goal for its hydrogen car, though deliveries should reach tens of thousands annually by 2020, Ogiso said. By that point, the cost of the system should fall by at least half, he said.

Toyota’s 2015 model fuel cell car will have more than 500 kilometres of range per fuelling, according to the company, a level matched only by Tesla’s US$70,000 (RM223,790) Model S among alternative-powered vehicles. Pricing has not been announced, although US Toyota executives have previously said it may cost about US$50,000.

Lexus chassis

Prototype fuel cell cars cost US$1 million or more in the mid-2000s, according to motor vehicle makers.

The prototype driven this week had the new powertrain system in the chassis of a Lexus HS 250h, a model that is larger than a Corolla compact and smaller than a mid-size Camry, or about the size of a Prius. The new model, which will be sold under the Toyota brand, will be on a modified platform of the HS, which is sold as the Toyota Sai in Japan.

Toyota’s new model held about 5 kilogrammes of compressed hydrogen in tanks that could be fully refuelled in three minutes, the company said. Fuelling is about as easy as filling up with petrol. A sensor in the hose ensures a proper attachment and fills until the tank is full to maximum recommended pressure. Total system power would be about 100 kilowatts, Ogiso said.

Honda, which has leased a few dozen FCX Clarity fuel cell sedans to drivers in the Los Angeles area, has said a new version of the mid-size car is due by 2015. The Tokyo-based motor vehicle maker in July announced an alliance with GM to bring even more advanced-fuel cars to market by 2020.

Hyundai Tucson

Hyundai, seeking to make its mark as a technological leader, also to commercialise fuel cell vehicles next year, said John Krafcik, the Seoul-based company’s US chief executive officer.

The largest South Korean car maker had started making a hydrogen-powered version of the Tucson crossover vehicle that would go on sale in the US “early” next year, Krafcik said in an e-mail message.

Ford Motor Co. is in a fuel cell development alliance that includes Daimler, Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA. Likewise, Toyota and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG are collaborating on the technology to improve the odds of hydrogen getting a market foothold.

Station scarcity

Cutting the cost of fuel cell cars is only half the battle: stations dispensing fuel are few and far between.

“The technology is here and motor vehicle makers are ready,” Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the world’s biggest hydrogen-vehicle evaluation programme, said in a statement. “Before they can sell or lease fuel cell electric vehicles, a much larger fuelling infrastructure must be in place.”

Japan, Germany and South Korea have government programmes to create initial networks of hydrogen fuel stations. California has also approved funding for 100 stations over nine years. It has nine public hydrogen stations open and 19 more in development, according to the partnership’s website.

Motor vehicle makers “seem genuinely committed to advancing the technology and the market”, said Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis, and member of California’s Air Resources Board. The powerful agency requires car makers to sell a range of low- and no-emission models to address the state’s persistent problems of air quality.

Just as the Prius was derided as too complex and costly when it arrived in 1997, Toyota saw the challenges as solvable, said Koei Saga, Toyota’s director and senior managing officer for research and development.

“We think in the future this technology will be required,” Saga said. — Bloomberg