http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20061231a1.html
Sunday, Dec. 31, 2006 Honda expecting to mass produce fuel-cell cars by 2018 Kyodo News Honda Motor Co. believed it will be able to mass-produce fuel-cell vehicles by 2018, Honda President Takeo Fukui said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. "In 2008, we will begin lease sales of a new fuel-cell car," Fukui said at the automaker's head office in Tokyo on Dec. 25. "By evolving a next model based on this, I think the level of technology will become very close to that of mass-produced ordinary vehicles within 10 years or so." He also said he believes fuel-cell car development will be very advanced by 2018. "It will become a real possibility to a large degree," Fukui said. Fuel-cell vehicles run on electricity generated through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen that releases only water vapor as a byproduct. It is considered a future environmentally friendly vehicle. Honda, Japan's third-largest automaker, has unveiled the FCX Concept -- a fully functional futuristic concept sedan powered by a hydrogen fuel -- and plans to make it available for lease sales in 2008 in Japan and the United States. Fukui said he is confident "there will be many customers who want to buy" a Honda fuel-cell car if it goes on sale for 10 million yen. Currently the cost to make a fuel-cell vehicle is estimated at several hundred million yen. The president said Honda is trying hard to develop a reliable fuel-cell car with an aim to make it as "a car of the future." The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
