    Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Click image to enlarge |
Article by Michael Bettencourt
Despite all the global buzz created by various fuel cell intros and confirmations at the Tokyo and LA auto shows recently, the latest feedback from Canadian automakers suggests such fuel cell cars will only make it to Canada much later than their announced global dates – if ever.
Toyota and Honda confirmed that they plan to introduce new hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles to California and Japan by the end of 2015, while Hyundai trumped them both by promising a fuel cell version of its Tucson will be available in southern California in mere months, in the spring of 2014.
But ask the Canadian divisions of all three of these companies if these fuel cells will arrive in Canada around the same time, the answer is the same: no. Or more accurately, some variation of “we haven’t decided yet/no definitive plans/not at this point.” Which basically means no, as these companies responded in the exact same way about other zero (local) emissions vehicles like the Toyota RAV4 EV and Honda Fit EV in the past few years.
In California, there are nine hydrogen fueling station open to the public, out of 10 overall in the U.S., so it’s no surprise that all automakers are focusing their efforts in that state to start. But it’s not only this available infrastructure making California the hotspot for such emissions-free cars. Strict state Air Resource Board (CARB) rules require the largest automakers in that state to sell a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles (battery or fuel cell electric vehicles) or near-zero emissions vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Volt, that can be driven largely without local emissions.
These rules will require GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Honda to sell 60,000 plug-in hybrid or fuel cell vehicles by the end of 2014 in California, which has a population about the size of Canada’s, but a much higher and pricier mix of vehicles per capita. This zero or near-zero requirement will later apply to smaller sellers Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW and Mazda by 2018.
In Canada, there are no such zero emissions vehicle requirements. Nor are there any fully public hydrogen charging stations open right now in Canada, though there are a handful of active research stations around the country: tough to have any station open for a vehicle type that’s never been sold here. The majority of these research hydrogen stations reside in greater Vancouver, the birthplace of the modern automotive fuel cell, thanks to the sizable Canadian research arm of Ballard’s pioneering automotive research.
Canadian history books may in fact one day see the sale of Ballard’s automotive fuel cell business as a four-wheel version of the dismantling of the technologically advanced and Canadian-designed Avro Arrow. The Canadian delta wing fighter jet never got past the prototype stage in the late 1950s. Daimler AG and Ford Motor Company formed a to a new fuel cell joint venture from the remains of Ballard in 2008, but it remains to be seen if they can make it viable. If fuel cell production and sales take off, it might be seen as a key globally collaborative step to bring fuel cell electric vehicles out of the lab and into actual consumer use.
Much depends on where fuel cells go from here. Daimler AG was confident enough in the joint venture’s results to open up its own Mercedes-Benz fuel cell production facility in 2012, with about half of the employees there having worked at Ballard or the resulting Automotive Fuel Cell Corporation joint venture, estimated Klaus Berger, vice president of Daimler’s fuel cell division, but based in the new Burnaby, BC facility.
Mercedes-Benz’s original plan was to launch a fuel-cell powered B-Class in 2015, even going so far as to create a whirlwind “World Tour” with these F-Cell vehicles to both promote the cars, and perhaps even more importantly encourage the development of global infrastructure to support them. The tour passed through Canada, with Vancouver being the only stop, before travelling down to California. But Berger says that was before a new agreement between Nissan, Daimler and Ford was struck to collaborate on fuel cell development, with a new target date now of 2017.
   Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Click image to enlarge |
Right now the prospects look promising for fuel cells in the U.S., Japan, and to a lesser extent in Europe, where governments and at least some private infrastructure partners have invested significant sums to break the eternal “chicken and egg” conundrum of what must be built first, the cars or the stations to fuel them. In Canada, it’s all about the fuel cell research, not the fuel cell retailing.
In Canada, there is much more progress that needs to be made, both from automakers and from governments, Berger admits. “It won’t be the entire country (fuel cell infrastructure), but we hope to have it done on the west coast, and we hope to have it in Montreal and Toronto,” said Berger, though he wouldn’t provide time frames for when such infrastructure could be in place.
But it’s very clear that Mercedes-Benz won’t offer a fuel-cell vehicle in any market that doesn’t have the infrastructure for it, and right now, by Berger’s own admission, Canada just doesn’t have enough hydrogen fuel-cell infrastructure. “The question is, do you follow the European model that’s supported by industry, with Daimler and other companies covering the infrastructure costs; or some that were supported by the government, such as in Norway and Denmark (and the United States).”
Even within Daimler itself, there is competition for alternate-energy R&D funding between fuel cell vehicles, battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, with the BEV Smart Fortwo ED its first zero-emissions car to make it to Canada early in 2013. So we asked the man at the top of Daimler AG’s global sustainability and research efforts, Dr. Herbert Kohler, which of these future technologies holds the most promise to him. “We think the better solution is fuel cells, with quick refills and so I have some doubts if that (BEV technology) is the future,” citing refueling times of less than five minutes, and the much longer driving range of FCEVs.
    Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Click image to enlarge |
Of course, the technical difference between fuel cell electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles are not that far removed, as both are powered by electricity, and carry large onboard batteries. The difference is that the fuel cell powertrain creates its own electricity using the compressed hydrogen, while the BEV collects it from the grid and stores it in its necessarily much larger and heavier batteries, thereby hurting both its range and its recharge times. In effect, the fuel cell and hydrogen act as a range extender to produce its electricity to feed the onboard battery, similar to what the gasoline engine does in a Chevrolet Volt.
And fuel cell owners tend to like the result, judging by my conversations with a few Honda FCX Clarity owners at the LA auto show who have lived with such advanced vehicles in their everyday lives. “Nothing happens unless you commit to it,” said Karen Thorp, an LA county prosecutor, who leased her first FCX in 2007, and is on her second one now. She’s driven almost 40,000 miles (64,000 km) in her current car, and estimates her range at about 247 miles (395 km), or just slightly better than the EPA’s 240-mile estimate, though she concedes it varies based on weather, driving style and traffic, as with most cars.
   Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Click image to enlarge |
Thorp agrees that the similar to gasoline refueling time is one of the main advantages over battery electrics, but she also likes the fact that the hydrogen can be formulated from waste products. She says that compressed hydrogen where she goes costs about US$4–5/kg, though Honda covers the fueling costs as part of their lease agreement, as other companies do and Hyundai will as well. It costs $12 to $15 per fill up, which she usually does at about 180 miles (288 km).
Compared to a Nissan Leaf run over a year in Canada, which costs about $30 in electricity for every 1,000 km of travel, Thorp’s costs run just slightly more expensive at about $50 per 1,000 km, if you concede both dollars at par. A small price to pay for the extra range and quicker fueling times, though you can’t fuel at home, plus fuel of any kind tends to be much cheaper in the U.S. than north of the border, even in California.
The two main obstacles to fuel cells have long been their high cost and lack of interest in fuel retailers to add compressed hydrogen pumps. “There’s a little reluctance from the energy supplier,” said Kohler. “ExxonMobil, Shell, those folks, it’s always a difficult issue for us. They always tell us they don’t want to lose money, and we tell them yes, we don’t either, but we have to look down the road.”
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If progress continues to stall with making compressed hydrogen widely available, Kohler believes governments will have to step in and force the oil companies to do so. “The lobby activities from the energy side were very strong, they came out and said we’ll do that on a free will basis, and I have some doubts on my side,” he states warily. “If CARB is pushing us to zero emissions vehicles, you have to bring some kind of preconditions for the market as well; the easiest way is to say every ton or thousand tons (of gasoline), you have to offer 10 kg of hydrogen.”
For us here in Canada, a country whose entire economic policy seems to revolve around petro-dollars, it seems a fairly safe bet that there will be no zero emissions government mandates or national public hydrogen refueling infrastructure in Canada anytime soon, especially if oil companies are still opposed to it. And unlike Tesla in the U.S. with its Supercharger network, with no auto company willing to pour major investment dollars into fuel cell infrastructure, the most likely way for most Canadians to drive a fuel cell vehicle in the next few years will likely be on a trip to LA, with a fuel cell rental car, in a deal between Hyundai and Enterprise with that same Tucson. Launch time, once again near LA only, is spring 2014.
