Japan pushing adoption of fuel cell vehicles by 2015

Japanese automakers may be investing a lot in EVs, but this doesn't mean that they have given up on fuel cell tech. According to a report published by The Nikkei, the Japanese government will launch a public-private initiative aimed at applying hydrogen used in oil refining to power fuel cell vehicles.

It states that with Japan moving towards the adoption of fuel cell vehicles by 2015, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry wants to secure a steady supply of high purity hydrogen - the hydrogen used in fuel cells is 99.99% pure, while the hydrogen that is used by oil distributors is about 90% pure.

Now technology will be developed to extract the high purity hydrogen with the aim of creating a new source of income. The undertaking will cost around 500,000,000 ¥ over a three-year period from fiscal 2011 onwards with the ministry to pay around half these costs.

[Source: Nikkei via TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk]

Yet another shot of BC's 2011 Nissan Tiida rendering

This is not a new rendering, but it's another shot from the latest issue of Best Car magazine. The new Tiida successor will make its debut in 2011 and the top version, probably badged as GT, will be powered by the 1.6 L turbocharged MR16DET engine (earlier post). The weight is expected to be around 1,100 kg and thus performance shouldn't be bad at all.

Already, some prototypes have been caught during testing and some shots revealing the interior have already been posted (earlier post).

[Source: IMP-X's blog]