What Honda And GM's New Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Partnership Means For The EV Industry

What Honda And GM's New Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Partnership Means For The EV Industry

Honda and GM are joint-manufacturing hydrogen hydrogen fuel cells. This is the beginning of a big change across the auto industry.

Topspeed | JAMES O'NEIL | February 9, 2024

Hydrogen is the fuel that won’t go away. Despite pesky problems like a lack of distribution infrastructure, customer wariness, range limitations, and the need for large fuel tanks that have a way of eating into the car’s interior space, the auto industry keeps throwing money into the gas. While a few companies have attempted to use hydrogen to bring the internal combustion engine into the post-gasoline era, the real future for the smallest atom on the periodic table seems to lie in fuel cells that don’t burn anything.

Honda and General Motors have formed a partnership called Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC, which does exactly what the name states. The two automakers seem to believe that hydrogen will be profitable enough in the future to justify an $85 million factory just outside of Detroit. This manufacturing plant is already open and producing hydrogen fuel cell systems. The slow end of the gasoline era is taking the auto industry into places that seemed absurd only twenty years ago, including the mass production of making power systems that use a fuel that is still only available in a handful of cities around the world.

Intriguingly, the Honda-GM collaboration doesn’t seem to be focused on cars. While the two automotive titans have co-developed a single hydrogen vehicle (a variant of the Honda-CR-V), most of the investment has been on making the fuel cells themselves. Neither company has announced a forthcoming lineup of hydrogen cars...

...Of course, Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC isn’t the first time auto companies have formed trans-Pacific collaborations. While automakers are normally in competition with each other, the industry has a long history of partnerships between apparent rivals...more
https://www.topspeed.com/honda-gm-new-hydrogen-fuel-cell-partnership/

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The 2025 Honda CR-V Hydrogen Will Power Your Coffee Maker

The fuel-cell SUV will have a battery with bidirectional charging.

Motor1.com | Adrian Padeanu | Feb 12, 2024

Much like Toyota and BMW, Honda is adamant that hydrogen has a place in the automotive industry. It's working with General Motors on a next-generation fuel-cell system that will go into an upcoming FCEV based on the CR-V. Teased in a new video, the crossover is coming out this year as an indirect replacement for the Clarity sedan, which was retired in 2021.

Honda is doing things differently this time around since the new model will combine a fuel cell with a battery pack. The promo shows the benefits of bidirectional charging as the owner powers his coffee maker at a remote location by using the battery's juice. Later in the video, we can see him going to a hydrogen fueling station to fill the pair of rear-mounted H2 tanks.

There are several battery-powered EVs on sale with this functionality, with notable examples being the Hyundai Ioniq 5 / Kia EV6 / Genesis GV60, Nissan Leaf, Ford F-150 Lightning, and a few Volkswagen models from the ID. lineup. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has this functionality as well.

Throwing a battery pack into the mix should help curb range anxiety, especially since the hydrogen fueling infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. Honda isn’t willing to go into specifics just yet but we do know the CR-V FCEV is going to be made at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Ohio. Yes, that's where the Acura NSX used to roll off the assembly line until the hybrid supercar was discontinued in November 2022. Even the JDM-spec version will be imported from the PMC site...more
https://www.motor1.com/news/708302/honda-cr-v-hydrogen-promo/



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Shell closing H2 stations in CA has hydrogen haters jumping for joy!

Most haven't seen this though.

Shell on Hydrogen (From Shell.com)

Hydrogen has a critical role to play in helping the world reach net zero emissions. Shell is developing integrated hydrogen hubs to serve industry and heavy-duty transport. In the years ahead we aim to be a leading player in a global hydrogen economy...more
https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/new-energies/hydrogen.html