By River Davis


Honda Motor Co. is betting that the spread of hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles in the U.S. and China will help it turn a profit in a new business selling fuel-cell systems.

Honda said Thursday that it plans to begin selling fuel-cell systems--modules that make electricity to power a motor from hydrogen and air--in the mid-2020s. It targets sales of 60,000 units of the system in 2030, a level by which Senior Managing Executive Officer Shinji Aoyama said the business should be able to turn a profit.

At that scale, "it's like counting one's chickens before they've hatched, but I believe it will be commercially viable," Mr. Aoyama said, speaking at a roundtable in Tokyo on Thursday.

High costs and limited charging infrastructure have thus far inhibited wide uptake of hydrogen-powered sedans such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s Mirai and Honda's Clarity. Mr. Aoyama said he sees fuel-cell passenger cars playing a minor role in Honda's 2040 zero-emission vehicle lineup.

Compared with batteries, fuel cells have higher energy density by weight and are viewed by some as a better option for powering commercial vehicles, which are heavy and travel long distances. With regard to Honda's fuel-cell systems, "commercial trucks will be at the center, in terms of regions in America and China," Mr. Aoyama said.


Write to River Davis at River.Davis@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-02-23 0557ET