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American Honda Motor, Co., Inc.announced today that Honda has joined the California Fuel Cell Partnership to help demonstrate the future potential of fuel cell vehicles. This announcement was widely reported by mass media including various on-line news and business magazines (they might have got PRE-briefing.) Honda has said that they would make a fuel cell vehicle available by the year 2003.
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| The de facto leader of this partnership is Ballard Power Systems, Inc. (founded in Canada 1979 under the name Ballard research Inc.) which has been developing proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Ballard is currently supplying fuel cells and fuel cell systems to such auto manufacturers as GM, DaimlerChrysler, VW, Honda, Ford and Nissan according its announcement. |
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In addition to Honda, the Partnership, which was established in April, 1999, is made up of auto manufacturers DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen; energy providers ARCO, Shell and Texaco; fuel cell maker Ballard Power Systems and the State of California. Firoz Rasul, Chairman and CEO, and Kip Smith, President and COO of Ballard Power Systems Inc. are very aggressive for holding leadership not only in supplying their fuel cells but in demonstrating the potential of fuel cell technology, clarifying issues regarding potential fuels and fueling infrastructure and increasing public awareness of fuel cell technology. Sometimes they criticized those auto manufactures which have not yet joined the partnership, by saying outspokenly that they would not be able to do anything about fuel cell vehicles because Ballard is holding hundreds of patent rights about fuel cell and its systems. It sounds like threatening some auto manufacturers. Ballard is against hybrid cars by calling their vehicles as "Zero Emission." And they are stressing that a big cost reduction of fuel cells will be possible and that their vehicles will drive on streets for practical use very soon.
I happened to see an exhibition of fuel cell systems which Toyota has been developing at the Toyota Hall next to the Toyota Headquarter in Toyota city the day before yesterday.
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I come to feel the hard competition for developing new technologies than before.