Development of FCEVs

Question 1:
What were the first models of fuel cell vehicles developed in Asia, Europe and North America? What were the specifications of these vehicles? Compare them to the specifications of the current model.

Region	Name of FCEV	Range	Top speed	FC output
Asia	Toyota FCHV - 2002	300km	155kmph	90kW
Europe	Bora HyMotion - 2001 (Volkswagen)	350km	140kmph	75kW
North America	Chevrolet Electrovan - 1966 (General Motors)	192km	112kmph	32kW

Comparison of different generation vehicles of the Toyota Mirai:

Question 2:
Show the trend of cost in USD per kW of fuel cell production in the past and the prediction of the cost in the future. What are the probable reasons for the improvement?

Probable reasons for the improvement:

• Economies of scale: more production of fuel cells in higher volumes automatically brings average cost down
• Advancements in technology which has lead to the cost of hydrogen fuel dropping for instance. Producing hydrogen through renewable energy makes it very low-cost, even comparable to diiesel in some regions
• More than 40% of the cost of a FC comes from its catalyst use (platinum-based catalysts): with advancements in research with platinum and improving its power density significantly, it has allowed to reduce cost.