Audi A7 H-Tron Fuel Cell Vehicle Advertised Using “Disappearing Billboards”

The past six months has seen a flurry of hydrogen fuel cell concepts from automakers across the world, and the Audi A7 Sportback h-tron is arguably the best-looking of the bunch. So how does one go about marketing a car whose only tailpipe emissions are water vapor? Audi came up with an ad campaign that dissipates in the same way as the emissions from the A7 Sportback h-tron.

The “disappearing billboard” for the Audi A7 Sportback h-tron has appeared in several major cities during nighttime hours, using a projector and water vapor to create ads that disappear, but leave a “lasting impression” as Audi puts it. While the arguments for or against hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels might still be raging, this unique marketing campaign really gets to the heart of why some people are so in favor of fuel cell vehicles.

Other automakers are utilizing clever ad campaigns for their own hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Hyundai watered a garden with the “emissions” from its fuel cell crossover, and while Toyota has advised against drinking the emissions of the Mirai FCV, they do intend on rally racing their hydrogen sedan. Hydrogen FCVs still face an incredible uphill battle though, especially with the market gains electric vehicles have made in the past five years.

Audi and other hydrogen backers will need more than clever advertising to make hydrogen a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Source: Gas2

Honda Fit EV Leases Extended As Hydrogen FCV Delayed

Make no mistake about it, as cool as the Honda Fit EV is, it was clearly designed as a compliance car, a placeholder for when Honda’s first production hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) comes to market. With its FCV possibly delayed until 2017 or later, Honda has opted to extend the lease options on the Fit EV both both existing and new buyers.

It’s an interesting turn of events, especially considering that the Fit EV went out of production last fall. Yet the popular compact electric car has proven to be something of a hit, with a months-long waiting list in some parts of California (the only place you can buy a Fit EV I believe). With the earliest leases on the verge of ending, and no replacement in sight, Honda has offered up a $199 a month extended lease deal. That’s down from the $259 monthly payment and extends the free maintenance and unlimited milage offers of the original lease.

Considering the Honda Fit EV first arrived in 2012 as a 2013 model, the Japanese automaker should have had some kind of replacement by now. That hasn’t happened despite the promise of a new EV though, and with its hydrogen FCV plans pushed back as well, Honda could end up paying hefty fines to California’s Air Resource Board for failing to put enough zero-emissions vehicles on the road.

Maybe Honda should just commit to building the Fit EV instead? People seem to love it, it’s competitive with many other electric cars on the market, and consumers are clearly turned on by the idea of an electrified Honda. Why not just give us what we want?

Honda Will Debut New EV And Hybrid By 2018

This year’s Honda display at the Detroit Auto Show felt kinda…off, despite repeated claims that 2015 is the “Year of Honda.” At its press conference at today, Honda didn’t have any big reveals or news, and even the “refreshed” Honda FCV had been seen before. But Honda didn’t let me walk away totally empty-handed,announcing that it will build a new plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle by 2018.

That’s great news for green car fans, as the Honda Fit EV and Honda Insight have both gone out of production, though the automaker isn’t entirely without green cars. There’s still the Civic Hybrid and Accord Hybrid of course, and the CR-Z is still sorta muddling along. I also have to say, the FCV looks a lot better in person than it does in pictures, and Honda also brought along its ninth (!!) generation fuel cell stack, which has been reduced about 33% in size compared to the previous generation, opening up a lot more passenger and cargo room.

There was also the neat little Honda uni-cub personal mobility scooter that was scootin’ around the place, was well as mention of the new HondaJet and Honda’s upcoming presence in the Formula 1 series. Unfortunately though, there are almost no details on either the plug-in hybrid or EV that Honda says it will build, and with sales of the FCV not set to begin until March of 2016. If this is truly to be the Year of Honda, the automaker had better start hustlin’.

…then again we did finally get a look at the production version of the Acura NSX, so perhaps I shouldn’t be *too* hard on Honda. But three years is a long time to have to wait for a new EV and plug-in hybrid, especially given just how many plug-in cars were revealed in the past two days.

Let’s hope Honda has a big reveal planned for either the Chicago or New York auto shows later this year.

Source: Gas2

Toyota Executive Puts Kibosh On Electric Cars

Toyota is about to pull the plug on electric cars. Production of its last EVs – the eQ electric minicar and RAV4 EV crossover – will be finished by the end of 2014, and there are no plans for any future Toyota full-size electric cars at the moment (though the Toyota i-Road three-wheeler is making headway as a rental). Recently, Mitsuhisa Kato, Toyota’s head of research and development, told Automotive News;

The cruising distance is so short for EVs, and the charging time is so long. At the current level of technology, somebody needs to invent a Nobel Prize-winning type battery.

He says today’s EVs need more batteries to offer the same driving range as a gasoline or diesel powered car. That in turn would increase the cost and charging time, leading to a “vicious cycle.”

Kato’s remarks came at the unveiling of Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell powered car, the FCV, which is set to appear in showrooms in 2015. The Japanese auto industry as a whole is placing a huge bet on hydrogen being the fuel of choice in the future with automakers like Honda and Mazda also committing to hydrogen. At the same time, much of the rest of the automotive industry is pressing ahead to bring more electric cars to market. Somewhere down the line, there will be much weeping and wringing of hands in the board rooms of some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers. We just don’t know which ones yet.

Kato says if electrics turn out to be the way to go, Toyota has the technology already on the shelf and can ramp up production of EV’s whenever that “Nobel Prize winning battery” becomes available. In the meantime, no one is going to be buying fuel cell cars unless tens of thousands of hydrogen refueling facilities get built.

In the end, the key to the EV vs. fuel cell battle will be determined by infrastructure as much as technology.

Source: Toyota

Toyota Motor Corp FCVs to Be Trialed in Narita Airport Car-service

How long will it take before the entire Hydrogen Fuel Cell concept is mercifully put to sleep? How many decades of testing and concepts and trials will it take before the automakers throw in the towel and give up? We hope it isn't much longer.

PRESS RELEASE:

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) plans to provide "TOYOTA FCHV-adv"^* fuel-cell-hybrid vehicles to an FCV (fuel-cell vehicle) car-service trial program to start on January 29 between Narita International Airport (Narita Airport) and other destinations. The provision is in response to a request from the Research Association of Hydrogen Supply/Utilization Technology (HySUT), a participant in the Hydrogen Highway Project run by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) as part of its Demonstration Program for Establishing a Hydrogen-based Social System.

The vehicles will be used in a car service All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (ANA) operates from Narita Airport for the Welcome-Home Limousine Taxi Service for passengers returning to Japan on flights from Europe or the U.S. and for its early morning pickup plan.

Under the same project, TMC has been providing an "FCHV-BUS" fuel-cell hybrid bus for use on a commercial route between central Tokyo and Tokyo International Airport (commonly known as Haneda Airport) since December last year.

To continue to promote the widespread use of FCVs, TMC will verify data obtained from the car-service trials (which will include highway use), and conduct ongoing research and development while actively cooperating with various organizations including the national government and the energy industry.