Fuel Cell Vehicles: Technology Development Status and Popularization Issues

Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV) are expected to be a future generation of vehicles that will significantly reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions including CO2. There are 2 types of FCV: a direct hydrogen-type and a reformer-type. The system configuration and characteristic are described. A lot of problems remain to be solved before introducing FCV to the market. Major issues and future directions are overviewed. Finally, the roles of control system in developing FCV, such as rapid developing methods are described.