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?

Nissan Stays Committed To EVs In Face Of Fuel Cell Fever

Last week we saw a flurry of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles make their official debuts, led by the Toyota Mirai. Audi, Volkswagen, and Honda also brought concepts to the show floor, and other automakers have demonstrated interest in their own fuel cell vehicles. But for Nissan, the future is still all about electric cars.

In an interview with the Japan Times, Nissan’s Vice Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga said that governments and automakers should “promote the electric vehicle first rather than hydrogen.” Asked if Nissan has any plans for a hydrogen car of its own, Shiga indicated such a vehicle might come about “in the long-term future.”

Shiga claims to be optimistic about the future of electric vehicles, and he has good reason to be. Europe has proven especially hungry for electric vehicles, which benefit from a multitude of tax breaks, cash incentives, and driving perks. But it also wasn’t that long ago that a Nissan executive was apologizing for slow EV sales and reminding people that the automaker was taking a $1 billion longshot on a technology with a discouraging track record.

In the past year though, the Nissan LEAF has become a hit in several countries, and sales seem to be growing despite an overall downward trend in sales of hybrids. The price cut helped out, but so do generous incentives like “No Charge to Charge” tax rebates that can amount to $10,000 or more. Hydrogen remains a long shot for widespread market acceptance anytime soon, but for what it’s worth I think Shiga is right. Hybrids like the Prius were a stepping stone to plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars.

If hydrogen cars are indeed a superior alternative, they will have their chance to prove it…but the costs are still too high and the infrastructure still too little for hydrogen to have any impact on the near-term. We need a solution today, and with an all-new Nissan LEAF just around the corner, electric cars are a solution a lot of Americans can get into today.

Source: Gas2

Toyota Wants 10,000 Fuel Cell Sales Year One

When it comes to fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), Toyota has made some pretty big promises, and the Japanese automaker has some pretty big expectations for its hydrogen cars. Toyota is hoping to sell between 5,000 and 10,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the first year. Seems hopeful and ambitious for a car that should cost at least $50,000.

Ambitious, but certainly not undoable. Tesla Motors has sold every Model S it could make, and the starting retail price of the pure electric sedan is $70,000. Done right, and a Toyota FCV with access to a local hydrogen fueling network  could have a wider appeal than pure electric cars. The problem is that Toyota is projecting pretty far into the future, banking on technology that isn’t quite there yet.

Toyota executives think that after 2020, FCVs will be just another part of the alternative fuel equation, offering upwards of 300 miles of driving range while advances in technology will bring the cost further downward. While I don’t doubt that progress is being made, Toyota would do well to heed the lessons learned by Nissan and electric cars, which are far easier to fuel given the nature of electricity (it’s just about everywhere).

If Toyota truly wants fuel cell vehicles to be competitive, they need to start investing in a fueling network, like, now. Europe and SoCal are great places to start, but the problem of hydrogen storage, both at refueling stations and in the vehicles themselves, still need to be solved. Still, if it looks anything like the FCV Concept Toyota debuted at the Tokyo Auto Show, it might be worth taking a second look at.

That said, Toyota isn’t the only company banking big bucks on fuel cell vehicles. Honda and Hyundai are just two of the big names pledging to sell fuel cell vehicles in in the next couple of years,. By then though, electric cars will have a big head start and just about every automaker will be offering a pure electric model on dealer lots. Can consumers really handle yet another green car?

2015 is the year we find out.

Source: Automotive News Europe