VW claims its fuel-cell technology is a match for the best, but says it currently has no plans to follow Toyota and Honda by offering a production model
Volkswagen is working on fuel-cell cars, according to Ulrich
Hackenberg, director of research at the company, but it will not be
joining Honda and
Toyota in
subsidising a hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to encourage their use.
The two Japanese companies have put money into hydrogen refuelling highways on the West and East coasts of the US as well as contributing to a hydrogen infrastructure in Japan, where the government says it wants fuel-cell vehicles to account for up to 70 per cent of totalsales by 2030.
Hackenberg also confirmed that VW’s fuel-cell cars use Ballard fuel cells (“We are using Ballard as an engineering supplier”) and other parts using a folio of patents that the group has purchased, but not from Toyota, which released its fuel-cell patents in a limited way at the beginning of the year.
“We are preparing the technology on the same level as our competitors,” Hackenburg said, “but we wouldn’t go into production at the moment.”
The two Japanese companies have put money into hydrogen refuelling highways on the West and East coasts of the US as well as contributing to a hydrogen infrastructure in Japan, where the government says it wants fuel-cell vehicles to account for up to 70 per cent of totalsales by 2030.
Hackenberg also confirmed that VW’s fuel-cell cars use Ballard fuel cells (“We are using Ballard as an engineering supplier”) and other parts using a folio of patents that the group has purchased, but not from Toyota, which released its fuel-cell patents in a limited way at the beginning of the year.
“We are preparing the technology on the same level as our competitors,” Hackenburg said, “but we wouldn’t go into production at the moment.”
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