http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16671/story.htm Planet Ark : Toyota to market fuel cell cars this year
JAPAN: July 2, 2002 TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp, the world's third largest automaker, said yesterday it would become the first carmaker to market a fuel cell passenger car, with a small number of vehicles to be offered from late this year. The auto giant stressed, however, that high costs meant its marketing efforts would be limited and it said only 20 vehicles would only be leased in the first 12 months to government bodies, research institutions and energy-related companies. "We are still deciding the price of the vehicle," Toyota spokeswoman Shino Yamada said. Fuel cell vehicles are seen as one day being the eventual answer to most of the environmental concerns caused by cars. Emitting only heat and water as by-products, fuel cells use an electrochemical process to create electricity by mixing hydrogen with oxygen. However, hydrogen in its natural gaseous state is difficult to store and distribute, so fuel cells vehicles for the ordinary consumer are not seen likely anytime soon. Toyota said it had brought forward a plan to begin marketing a fuel cell vehicle from 2003 after successfully road testing its FCHV-4 prototype for a year in Japan and the United States. DaimlerChrysler AG first brought to market a limited series of fuel cell buses in 2000. Other automakers have pledged to begin marketing fuel cell vehicles from next year or 2004. Toyota said in a statement it expected full commercialisation of fuel cell vehicles from 2010 at the earliest, once standards were in place and the public better understood hydrogen fuel. Toyota said the vehicles available from the end of the year would be offered only in Japan and the United States, in limited areas where the company had confirmed the availability of hydrogen supply and after-sales service. Toyota, widely seen as the leader in environmentally friendly auto technology, put the first hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle, the Prius, on the market in 1997. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
