Honda puts Honda FIT Shuttle intro on hold

Not for the North American market....
The devastating earthquake and its aftermath in Japan have forced Honda to postpone the market launch of its new Fit Shuttle. The introduction of the car in Japan was scheduled to take place this month. Honda said it has not yet decided on a new release date and that the company will follow up with an announcement with more details soon.

The new Fit Shuttle is approximately 510mm longer than the hatchback, which is also known as the Jazz in Europe and other international markets. In Japan, it will be offered with a similar engine lineup to the hatchback model including a conventional 1.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine and a hybrid variant featuring a 1.3-liter gasoline unit and a 10 KW electric motor.

Suggested retail prices in Japan will start from 1.61 million Yen (about US$13,900) for the gasoline engine only model and from 1.81 million Yen (US$15,800) for the hybrid variant.

Source;

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2011/03/honda-postpones-launch-of-fit-shuttle.html

Japan to sell fuel cell cars in 2015

-100 refuelling stations by 2015
-Four areas in Japan to benefit
-Progress is being made in Europe, too

Sales of hydrogen fuel cell cars will kick off Japan in 2015, car manufacturers and hydrogen suppliers jointly announced recently.

Although numbers of vehicles have not been discussed, the partnership of Honda, Nissan and Toyota said 2015 would mark the start of 'mass production' of fuel cells.

Hydrogen suppliers have committed to establishing a network of 100 refuelling stations in Japan to serve the cars.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it would support the expansion of the hydrogen network.

Work is also underway on developing fuel cells and hydrogen refuelling in Europe. There are already a chain of refuelling points along the HyNor 'hydrogen highway' in Norway, between Oslo and Stavanger.

Mercedes is already trialing fuel-cell versions of the B-Class, while Kia and General Motors have both said they will sell 10,000 fuel cell vehicles each by 2015.

Source;
http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/japan-to-sell-fuel-cell-cars-in-2015/254919

Japan eyes oil refineries as a source of hydrogen for vehicles

Nikkei, a Japanese news outlet, reports that Japan's government is expected to launch a public-private initiative aimed at developing technology that will allow hydrogen that is currently utilized in the oil refining process to be manipulated into a source of power for fuel-cell vehicles. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is seeking a secure and readily available supply of hydrogen and believes that high-purity H2 can be obtained from oil refineries that are scattered across the island nation. However, hydrogen used in fuel-cell vehicles typically needs to be 99.99 pure, whereas the H2 that could come from the oil refining industry in this way has significantly more impurities.

METI, along with many unlisted collaborative partners, hopes to develop technology that can extract high-purity hydrogen from the less-than-pure H2 used in oil refining. The project is estimated to cost 500 million yen ($6.2 million U.S. at the current exchange rate) and should be completed by the end of 2014. METI is willing to dish out enough money to cover half of the program's total costs. Hat tip to Roy!

Source;
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/01/04/japan-eyes-oil-refineries-as-a-source-of-hydrogen-for-vehicles/