While Tesla Motors' firebrand CEO Elon Musk is pushing for the adoption of plug-in zero-emission vehicles, Toyota has decided it will go down a different path. The world's largest automaker is set to introduce a new fuel cell car, which it said will represent its vision of a zero-emissions future.
Toyota announced Wednesday that it is planning to sell its first mass-market fuel cell car in Japan before April next year and hopes to introduce the vehicle to U.S. and Europe in the summer. The car, which is said to be the size of a Camry, will sell for seven million yen ($68,700), but Toyota executive vice president Mitsuhisa Kato said the company is participating in talks with the Japanese government about subsidizing the cars.
"If there are no charging stations and generous subsidies that lower the transaction price, what's the point in buying one?" says analyst Koji Endo at Advanced Research Japan. "The actual transaction price matters more than the sticker price, so sales will depend on how much they can get in subsidies."
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe detailed his growth strategy for the fledgling fuel cell industry, which he hopes will grow to at least three trillion yen by the year 2030. The road map included subsidies and tax breaks for fuel cell car buyers and incentives for hydrogen fuel stations. The ruling party is also pushing for larger subsidies and tax breaks and aims to bring down the cost of fuel cell vehicles to two million yen ($20,000) by 2025 after subsidies.
In the U.S., President Barack Obama announced the adoption of lower limits on greenhouse gas emissions by 2017. The government will also be requiring car manufacturers to increase the fuel efficiency of their cars by 50% by 2025.
Like electric plug-ins, fuel cell cars are powered by electric motors and emit only water vapor and heat. However, they do not require to be plugged in to a charging station for half an hour because they do not run on a battery. Instead, fuel cell cars only take a few minutes to refill with hydrogen gas, which then passes through platinum-dusted plates and plastic membranes to produce electricity.
However, consumer adoption of the new technology banks on the construction of supporting infrastructure. Aside from subsidies, the Japanese government is also planning to build 100 hydrogen fuel stations in urban areas where Toyota's fuel cell car will first be launched. Over in the U.S., California is spending $47 million to build 28 new hydrogen stations that will join 10 existing ones and 16 others currently being constructed. Toyota North American chief Jim Lentz said this will be enough to refuel a fleet of 10,000 fuel cell cars.
