Written by丨Guo Xiaozhuoer
Produced by丨First Element Network
On January 25, local time, Honda America announced on social media that its joint venture plant "Fuel Cell System Manufacturing" (FCSM) with General Motors officially began producing a new generation of fuel cells jointly developed by the two companies.
In terms of the promotion of the development of fuel cells, Honda and GM can be said to have hit it off and have a long history.
It is understood that FCSM, founded in 2017, is located in Brownstown, Michigan, the base camp of traditional American automobiles, and is jointly funded by General Motors and Honda, and FCSM has said that the company is the first company to produce fuel cells "on a large scale".
Previously, the two companies have also worked together to create models such as the Honda Prologue, Acura ZDX and Cruise Origin in the field of pure electric vehicles.
Just last year, Honda and GM said they would abandon plans to jointly develop affordable electric vehicles due to business prospects and cost targets.
Hydrogen wind rudder
Recently, Honda and General Motors launched hydrogen fuel cell versions based on the CR-V chassis in the U.S. and Japan.
In response, Honda's head of Honda's electrification division, Inoue Katsushi, said in an interview with Autocar that FCEVs (fuel cell vehicles) have the potential to become an important part of Honda's global product line.
Honda and GM have been working together since 2013, when they began jointly developing fuel cell systems in 2013, and FCSM, a joint venture established in 2017, will each hold a 50% stake.
The 70,000-square-foot plant employs 80 people, and the initial production capacity of FCSM will support the internal application of various products of Honda and GM, as well as explore external sales opportunities, with the goal of starting deliveries of fuel cell system modules in the near future, with an initial sales volume of 2,000 units, after which sales will be expanded in phases.
In practical application, however, there are slight differences between the two sides.
As one of the world's largest automakers, GM's hydrogen fuel cell business, the Hydrotec project, is currently being developed in the heavy-duty truck, aerospace and locomotive sectors, as well as in the power generation sector.
In contrast, manufacturing motorcycles, construction machinery, marine engines, generators, lawn mowers, ......Honda, which has eighteen martial arts, has a much wider path in the application of fuel cellsIn addition to construction vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, and stationary energy storage equipment, the most important thing is the application in passenger cars.
In 2016, Honda's hydrogen energy production model also entered the world stage, and its mass-produced Clarity Fuel Cell, priced as high as 7.83 million yen (about 500,000 yuan), is not inferior to Toyota's first hydrogen fuel cell model, Mirai.
However, due to the sluggish sales of the original Clarity and the market's reaction, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said, "How quickly can we make the electric vehicle business profitable," because he had to admit: "Companies that do fast can survive." ”
Landing is promising
In the history of hydrogen fuel cell development of global car companies in the past, GM and Mercedes-Benz, which were the earliest entrants, changed their runways before mass production, while Toyota, Honda, and Nissan among Japanese car companies are die-hard fans in the bet on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
However, while the world is busy developing pure electric vehicles, Honda has "betrayed" its ally Toyota, and in 2021, due to too dismal sales and no possibility of large-scale rollout in the future, Honda has "betrayed" ToyotaHonda announced that it will discontinue the production of its hydrogen fuel cell model, the Clarity, and shift its product focus to the field of pure electric vehicles.
On February 2, 2023, at Honda's hydrogen and fuel cell strategy conference, Honda announced that it will jointly develop a new hydrogen fuel cell with General Motors, and the new version will be cheaper than the fuel cell version installed in Honda's previous generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Clarity.
Honda, a car company that is also a member of the "Hydrogen Fan Association" with Toyota, has withdrawn from the fuel cell track, and the blockbuster news of increasing hydrogen energy again has really attracted enough attention.
Judging from the current process, this cooperation has really made substantial progress.
It is reported that Honda's fuel cell vehicle based on CR-V will be launched in March this year.
It is equipped with an e-fuel cell fuel cell system jointly developed with GM, and unlike conventional hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, in addition to hydrogen refueling, it also supports external charging, so that owners can use charging piles to replenish energy at home, and at the same time, it can also alleviate the anxiety caused by the current shortage of hydrogen refueling stations.
Initial production of fuel cell power units will be relatively small, with Honda executive Jay Joseph saying at an event on Jan. 24 that the goal is to deliver 2,000 fuel cell power units annually by around 2025 and 60,000 by 2030.
Katsushi Inoue said that battery electric vehicles will be the first to be popularized, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the next stage of development. He said that the era of hydrogen fuel cells may still take some time, and 2040 may be more realistic than 2030.