USA / USA / Japan – Through the 50/50 joint venture between Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Company and U.S. OEM, General Motors (GM), Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC (FCSM) based in Brownsville Michigan, announced that it has started series production of its hydrogen fuel cell systems* at its 70,000-square-foot production facility in Brownstown, Michigan. This partnership was announced over ten years ago, to jointly produce “next-generation” hydrogen fuel cell power systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and other products as both companies look to increase their exposure to the global zero-emissions market. The target is to halve the cost and double the durability compared to fuel cell systems currently on the market, bringing them in line with conventional diesel engines.

Honda said it expects to sell around 2,000 next-generation hydrogen fuel cell systems per year from the mid-2020s, starting in Japan and the USA with fuel-cell versions of the CRV passenger vehicle in 2024, rising to 60,000 systems annually by the end of the decade and a few hundred thousand “future” systems annually by the second half of the 2030s.