Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi, are working together — with
massive government subsidies — to dramatically expand the number of
public chargers.
And in the U.S., the Big Three are lone wolves — fear of exposing trade secrets means they seldom work together, on green cars or much of anything. There’s no such problem in Japan, where not only is the government united in support, but Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi are willing to collaborate when it makes sense.
And in the U.S., the Big Three are lone wolves — fear of exposing trade secrets means they seldom work together, on green cars or much of anything. There’s no such problem in Japan, where not only is the government united in support, but Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi are willing to collaborate when it makes sense.
On Monday, the four Japanese giants said they’re united on a major expansion of the electric car charging network in Japan.
It’s a big ramp-up, with chargers to go into all sorts of public
places, including shopping malls and family restaurants, service
stations and tea houses. Helping make it happen are $666 million in
Japanese government subsidies for 2013 alone. According to the
automakers, “Each prefecture in Japan is drawing up a vision for the use
of the subsidies.” The business owners themselves won’t be heavily out
of pocket, because the car companies will bear at least part of the
installation and maintenance costs.
The goal is to
have hybrids (such as the Toyota Prius taxi in Tokyo, above), plug-in
hybrids and battery electrics reach 15 to 20 percent of new car sales by
2020. Japan already has many more 480-volt fast chargers than the
U.S., a whopping 1,700, but fewer 240-volt Level II units at around
3,000. That is “generally recognized to be insufficient,” the automakers
said. Under the plan, 5,000 Level IIs will be added, and 1,300 fast
chargers. The automakers will work together to strategically locate the
network, something they haven’t done in the past.
The Japanese government is also bullish on another zero-emission technology, hydrogen fuel cells,
and has subsidized their use as home power generators. Two Japanese
companies, Honda and Toyota, have pledged to have fuel-cell cars on the
road by 2015.
The U.S. remains the world leader not only in electric cars on the
road but also in installed chargers. But there are encouraging
developments in Europe, with Estonia and Holland investing in national
networks. China hasn’t achieved liftoff yet, but when it does, watch
out. And now Japan’s auto industry and its political leaders are moving
together to put money and business clout behind a big expansion.
Source : www.mnn.com
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