Toyota to launch hydrogen-powered car

Toyota has announced it will begin selling fuel cell
cars next month, taking a first small step into the
unproven market for emissions-free, hydrogen-
powered vehicles.
The sporty-looking, four-door Toyota Mirai – that
runs on compressed hydrogen gas without emitting
exhaust – will be available in Japan on December 15
and in the US and Europe in mid-2015, the world’s
largest automaker said on Tuesday.
Mitsuhisa Kato, a Toyota executive vice president,
said Mirai will retail for about $57,600 before taxes.
Besides the relatively high cost, buyers will have to
contend with finding fuel. Only a few dozen
hydrogen filling stations have been built worldwide,
though governments are subsidising the construction
of more.
In Japan, with about 30 stations, that means the
regions around Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya cities in
central and western Japan and the northern part of
Kyushu island in the south.
A few stations have opened in California in the
United States, and there are plans to build some in
the Northeast. Germany and the United Kingdom
are among European countries that have or plan to
build them.
Toyota Motor Corp hopes to sell 400 in Japan and 300
in the rest of the world in the first year.
The company has about 200 pre-orders for the vehicle,
mainly government agencies and companies that
want to go green, the company said. Over time, Kato
said, Toyota hopes to help build a “hydrogen
society”.
Mirai, which means future in Japanese, can travel
650 to 700 kilometres on its two tanks of hydrogen.
Hydrogen may be more expensive than gas initially,
because there are so few customers but, over time,
Toyota expects it will be cheaper to run a car on
hydrogen than with gas.
Yoshikazu Tanaka, deputy chief engineer for Toyota’s
next generation vehicle development, said he expects it
will take 10-20 years for the Mirai to reach sales in
the tens of thousands of vehicles a year.
Asked if it is a risk, he said yes, but that Toyota
views it as a challenge.
Both Honda and Hyundai are also experimenting
with limited sales and leases of fuel cell cars. Honda
showed a fuel cell concept car on Monday.