TOKYO, March 15, (Agencies): Four Japanese auto giants and the country’s largest power company joined forces Monday to set up a common system to recharge electric cars, with the aim of creating a global standard.
The growth of the electric vehicle sector has been hampered by the chicken-or-egg question of what should come first: zero-emission cars or the networks of recharging stations to keep them on the road.
Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries have linked up with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) as the organising members of the new grouping called “CHAdeMO”.
The name is derived from a combination of the words “Charge” and “Move” and a pun on a popular Japanese phrase.
In total 158 companies and government bodies are members, including 20 foreign firms, among them Bosch, Peugeot SA and Enel SpA.
Standardizing charging infrastructure is vital to making electric vehicles popular, TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said.
“We need to make this protocol a standard protocol outside of Japan,” he told a gathering in a Tokyo hotel.
Zero-emission cars are gaining traction globally as concern has grown over pollution from the exhaust pipes of conventional petrol cars and its impact on the environment.
Mitsubishi Motors last year rolled out the i-MiEV and Fuji Heavy the Subaru Plug-in Stella, both in Japan. Nissan is set to launch the world’s first mass market electric vehicle, the Leaf, later this year.
Promised
Toyota, which has focused on hybrids, has promised to launch its own version by 2012. It has already begun leasing a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle since late last year, one year earlier than initially planned.
Electric cars still face key hurdles such as costly batteries and the lack of conveniently-located recharging points, which limits their operating radius.
Standardisation would require all makers to agree on the kind of outlet and the voltage, which currently differ among firms.
“It’s like establishing a common operation manual or a code that allows the charging machine to work across a broad range of electric vehicles,” said Takafumi Anegawa, electric vehicle manager at TEPCO.
The Japanese government is throwing its support behind the move, and has earmarked 12.4 billion yen ($13.7 million) in the budget for fiscal 2010 starting in April to develop a recharging grid.
Some officials pointed at hurdles in creating a global standard.
Toyota and three other Japanese automakers together with a power company have set up a group to promote electric vehicles by standardizing recharging machines and marketing the technology abroad.
Representatives of Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, Fuji Heavy Industries and Tokyo Electric Power Co gathered at a Tokyo hotel Monday to announce the association, which includes about 160 businesses, some of them foreign, and government organizations.

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SHANGHAI: China is urging its automakers to upgrade quality and set up accountable recall systems to handle defects, amid growing awareness of such issues following Toyota’s recent recalls.
Chinese vehicle sales surged 45 percent last year, to over 13 million units, making China the world’s biggest auto market. Sales growth this year remains in the double digits so far, prompting local automakers to announce major expansion plans.
As they rush to meet surging demand, car makers need to guard against “blind expansion,” the Ministry of Information and Technology said in a statement issued on the eve of Monday’s World Consumer Rights Day.
“China has become a world automobile producing and consuming power, but it should also be noted that the industry still lacks core technology and has weak innovative capabilities,” said the ministry, which shares oversight of China’s automakers with other agencies.
“This creates hidden dangers for public safety,” it said.