Report: Japan's fuel cell market could grow 99-fold by 2025

The Big Japanese Three automakers are all working on fuel cell vehicles. This is no surprise, especially to anyone who remembers that, between 1998 and 2004, two out of every three fuel cell patent applications were filed by Japanese companies. What might be a surprise is how big the domestic fuel cell market there might be in fifteen years.

Japan Today reports that the Fuji-Keizai Group research firm has estimated there will be a 99-fold increase in the Japanese domestic fuel cell market between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2025. 99 fold? That's ginormous. No, wait, it's bigger than ginormous. In money terms, it means going from 16.3 billion yen in fiscal 2009 to fuel cell demand that "may reach 990 billion yen for automobiles and 507 billion yen for housing in fiscal 2025." A big uptick will happen around 2018, which is when Fuji-Keizai predicts fuel cell vehicles will be "in competition with hybrid gasoline-electric and electric cars." There's a lot of unknowns to this story, but the numbers are ginormous, indeed. Thanks to Roy B. for the tip!

[Source: Japan Today]

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