Nissan's Zero-Emission Fuel-Cell Car Promotes Coca-Cola Zero in California

If global business presented an automaker award for best service to alternate transportation in 2009, Nissan North America would be a strong contender—the company is stepping ahead on both fuel cells and electric cars.

Earlier this month, Nissan showed off its Leaf battery car, which is currently on a 22-city U.S. tour. The company will market no less than four EVs (three for the U.S.) in the next few years. And, on November 24, Nissan announced that it had made its first “commercial” lease of a fuel-cell X-Trail vehicle (which can go 300 miles on a tankful of pressurized hydrogen), to Coca-Cola Bottling in Sacramento, California. Sacramento is a logical location, as the location of the government-automaker-utility-led California Fuel Cell Partnership (which counts Daimler, Ford, GM and Hyundai/Kia as members).

California also has a zero emission vehicle mandate that requires carmakers to put 7,500 either fuel cell or plug-in EVs on the road in the 2012-2015 time frame. The Nissan lease is a first toe in the water for the company. Last year, Honda leased its first five FCX Clarity fuel-cell cars to California-based celebrities (including the actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest). Earlier-generation FCX cars were leased as early as 2005.

General Motors leased a fuel-cell vehicle to the U.S. Postal Service in 2006, and later that same year announced “Project Driveway” that put 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell vehicles on the road.

“Sacramento already has the beginning of a hydrogen infrastructure in place,” said Nissan vice president Eric Noziere. “And Sacramento Coca-Cola has a track record of utilizing low-emission cars, so the two companies share a green philosophy as well as a common love of all things ‘zero.’”

Don Quinn of Sacramento Coca-Cola said the X-Trail offers a chance “to team up with Nissan to employ zero-emissions technology in a real-life business setting.” The X-Trail will be used in promotions for Coca-Cola Zero, though that zero refers to calories, not emissions.

Both the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Honda were signatories of a September 8 “letter of understanding” on the market introduction of fuel-cell vehicles (along with Daimler, Ford, GM/Opel, Hyundai/Kia and Toyota). According to the letter, “[T]he signing OEMs strongly anticipate that from 2015 onwards a quite significant number of fuel-cell vehicles could be commercialized. The number is aimed at a few hundred thousand (100,000) units over life cycle on a worldwide basis.”

The letter called for publicly accessible hydrogen networks (currently the technology’s Achilles Heel—there were only 84 hydrogen stations in North America in 2008—dispensing “reasonably priced” fuel to customers. That will require public involvement, which has been more forthcoming in Europe and Japan than in the U.S. Department of Energy head Steven Chu has been a reluctant partner with fuel-cell vehicles, though he pledged to work for a fuel-cell future after Congress restored a $100 million cut he’d ordered in 2010 hydrogen funding.

In all the programs so far, the phrase “commercial lease” should be taken advisedly. Nissan, which did not disclose the terms of its business arrangement with Coca-Cola, does not hope to recoup any of its considerable investment in fuel cells through early lease programs, but like other automakers is seeking to normalize the technology.