Toyota has laid out their plans to start production of the first Hydrogen fuel cell powered car this December. Toyota had mentioned about the said plan last year in the Tokyo Motor show but with the latest news the car will be available much earlier than expected. Mean while Toyota has developed many prototypes which were tested. To get the zero emission mark or the ZEV standards, Toyota is switching to fuel cell instead of batteries to meet such norms.
The first cars rolling out of the Toyota factory would cost around 8 million yen that is $78,000. However, they have plans to cut down the prices to 3 million to 5 million yen which is 30,000 to 50,000 USD (with the current exchange rates), the cutting down of prices won’t happen until the beginning of the next decade.
U.S will be getting a modified version of car showcased on the Tokyo Expo having targets for sale in southern California which happens to have a network of hydrogen fueling stations. Prices for the U.S have not been disclosed as yet.
A car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell has a device called fuel-cell stack which combines oxygen and hydrogen which is then supplied to an electric circuitry followed by an electric motor. These cells are far better than the lithium-ion batteries also hydrogen can be refilled in the system in matter of minutes whereas a lithium-ion battery would take hours to get fully charged again. On a full tank of hydrogen the car is expected to run for 300miles. In this energy conversion the only exhaust that the car gives are water vapors hence hydrogen fuel cells are said to be the ultimate clean fuel.
The car will be rolling out from the Motomachi plant and it is unclear as to when the car will reach the American shores. The performance of this vehicle will be similar to the Prius hybrid which gives 90KW of power which is around 120 hp. The car can go from 0-60mph in 10 seconds.
Source: Japan Times