Hydrogen-powered vehicles to go on 540-km test run in Japan

Thursday 16th July, 04:03 AM JST

HIROSHIMA —

A group of hydrogen-powered motor vehicles will be taken on a rare 540-kilometer road test in western Japan later this month without an accompanying refueling vehicle, an organizer of the project said Wednesday. The prototype green vehicles will be refueled with hydrogen at roadside chemical plants in the test run starting in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on July 27.

The vehicles will be refueled at plants including those in Okayama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures before arriving in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, on July 30. The vehicles will also be run on highways. The vehicles to be road-tested include three minivans that can run only with hydrogen—two Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid minivans produced by Mazda and an FCHV-adv fuel-cell hydrogen hybrid minivan by Toyota Motor Corp. The other is Mazda’s hydrogen-gas hybrid car RX-8 Hydrogen RE.

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9 Comments

timeon at 09:29 AM JST - 16th July

I keep on having my doubts about the highly explosive hydrogen being used for cars. What happens in real life, when all sorts of accidents happen?
Betting at 10:28 AM JST - 16th July

"I keep on having my doubts about the highly explosive hydrogen being used for cars. What happens in real life, when all sorts of accidents happen?".

A gasoline explosion is pretty spectacular too I believe, but we all use it. Anway, I'm the car companies have thought of this problem.

I really do hope these cars become available to the public in the near future.
Cliffy at 05:28 AM JST - 17th July

I have seen one documentary on comparing hydrogen and regular fuel a while back. In the slow motion video, it shows that when ignited, the hydrogen and the flame goes upward while gasoline spreads in all directions.
dontpanic at 02:24 AM JST - 18th July

Hydrogen can be more explosive than petrol. However when it leaks into the atmoshere it dissipates very quickly and becomes harmless. Unlike petrol which pools around and below the point of the leak and remains a fire risk.
Buggis at 03:58 AM JST - 18th July

Moviemakers will face new problems on how to present fuel cell driven cars and motorbikes crashing on screen. Most of the sound and explosions in car chase movies are fake.
ebisen at 08:43 PM JST - 18th July

dontpanic - exactly - hydrogen dissipates quickly therefore being less of an ignited explosion risk. On the other hand storing liquid hydrogen in a tank is a very complicated problem, (very high pressure AD very low temperature)and a ruptured tank explodes in a very spectacular manner even before the hydrogen ignites.
mareo2 at 09:21 PM JST - 18th July

I dont think that J need these, we are going to replace imported oil with imported hydrogen? Electric cars sounds better in my opinion.
dontpanic at 10:52 PM JST - 20th July

"On the other hand storing liquid hydrogen in a tank is a very complicated problem"

It is, but a problem that was solved quite some time ago. Built to the right standards exploding tanks (even those involved in accidents) are much less of an issue than leaky connections and regulators.
elbudamexicano at 11:45 PM JST - 20th July

Norway now is the world leader in hydrogen powered vehicle technology, they have just built a new highway with NO GASOLINE STATIONS, but plenty of hydrogen stations to help change from gasoline to hydrogen. Japan should join forces with Norway to come up with cheaper hydrogen cars to be used all around the world.