In 2030, Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, expects to sell 10 million vehicles a year. Of them, 5.5 million are expected to be a mix of strong hybrid, plugin hybrid, and hydrogen-powered. With hybrid already in its model portfolio here, then Toyota could sell a few hydrogen vehicles in India also.
As part of a pilot project, three of Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell- powered car Mirai are running on Indian roads. One of them is with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, also a strong proponent of biofuels.
“The benefit with EV (Electric Vehicle) is that people have been working on it, both globally and in India for a long period. But, I think, for hydrogen the pace of catching up may be faster than we expect,” says Vikram Gulati, Country Head and Executive VP (Corporate Affairs & Governance), Toyota Kirloskar Motor. Mirai, which has sold around 20,000 units in the past 9 years, is one of the first mass produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicles globally.
In the early 2000s, Arun Jaura, now CTO, Hero MotoCorp, was responsible for the co-development of two hydrogen cars – a hybrid, and one with internal combustion technology, during his stint at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. The vehicles, co-developed with the US Government’s Department of Energy, remained as technology demonstrations. If done today, they would still be demonstration projects, but could make it into production in the mid-term.
“It’s great, it’s a symbolic transportation model. To start with, especially when you say, we want to get into the hydrogen economy, we want to do a lot of green hydrogen,” says Jaura, who believes that volume adoption of hydrogen technology in India is still some time away. “The question is, how do you bring that hydrogen to the consumer side of the business? On the B2B side, it’s already in use for a lot of things,” he says.
Adequate quantities of green hydrogen production, safe storage solutions, and dispensing networks have to fall in place for the green energy source to penetrate into the Indian automobile industry’s new powertrain technology mix.
And this might have triggered Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to line up mega investments, both for its sustainable growth and for a green future. The Indian conglomerate plans to invest INR 5 lakh crore over the next 10-15 years for a renewable energy power plant of 100 GW capacity, and for developing a green hydrogen ecosystem.
“Reliance is playing a bigger role in an end-to-end ecosystem and mobility is one part. But in mobility, we are trying to see what is the cost-effective technology and Reliance will invest into it not to become an OEM, but to support the OEMs to fast-track this journey,” says Nitin Seth, CEO – New Mobility, Reliance Industries.
RIL wants to fast-track setting up a clean energy ecosystem, with hydrogen being a major part, also because it has set 2035 as the target year to be carbon neutral. The conglomerate has 5,000 heavy duty trucks, and 50,000 two and three-wheelers in its fleet. To successfully meet the carbon neutrality target. “All of these have to move to new energy in some form, electric, hydrogen or any other combination,” says Seth.
H2ICE: The better bet for India
It is the hydrogen fuel cell technology that attracts the interest of the players who have adopted the green energy source. In India, the H2ICE (Hydrogen Internal Combustion) technology option is set to make it into the market in larger volumes.
“If you put both of these on the table, and you were to pick something that’s fast enough, then the internal combustion engine could be one of the quick ones,” says Jaura. And that could be for two-wheelers too.
“Most of the vehicles which are on display, and most of the motor shows in India or overseas are with fuel cell technology which to us is not something that can be affordable for at least the next five to seven years,” says Seth.
Hydrogen ICE is also something that Toyota has been working on for “a good number of years”. Could a Toyota H2ICE car make it to India if it goes into production? It could, because Toyota looks at “a multi- technology pathway” to clean mobility. A route which it expects lawmakers also to take while devising policies.
Triggering collaborations
The new developments in the mobility and technology landscapes are also driving collaborations like never before. It is no longer a choice in scenarios like building an ecosystem. So, while Reliance has partnered with players like Bosch and FEV, Toyota has joined hands with commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland. The Japanese major has provided the fuel cell stack, which is common across all applications, for the Ashok Leyland hydrogen-powered truck.
“Going forward, we are also exploring all possibilities to look at how we can collaborate in terms of a wider set of applications going beyond just transportation. And, the aspiration is also to build through such collaborations, enough scale in India or enough activities in India to be able to develop an ecosystem,” says Gulati.
Hydrogen being a highly flammable gas, its storage solution has to be very robust. Typically the storage pressure levels are 350 or 700 bars. Carbon fibre makes for a good material for these tanks, but Seth says that raw material availability is a challenge in India. And that is also a business opportunity. “Reliance will invest into making carbon fibre as a raw material in India. And if raw material is available in India, then many global players would like to put up tank manufacturing facilities in India,” he says.
The senior industry professionals were speaking at the ETAuto webinar on ‘Hydrogen – A game changer technology for sustainable transportation?’
The National Green Hydrogen Mission, with an outlay of INR 19,700 crore, has conveyed the Government’s focus on growing the Hydrogen economy in India, and also given a fillip to prospects of the energy source in the automotive industry. India has set an annual production target of 5 MMT green hydrogen by 2030.
Not that Hydrogen vehicles will start appearing on Indian roads from next year, but quite likely from 2025, starting with commercial vehicles.
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The cars come with sporty exterior styling, elegant interior enhancements and introduction of new features for advanced safety, connectivity and convenience. Both the models are BS-6 RDE compliant on E5 fuel and E20 material compatible, the company said.
