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Toyota Hydrogen Car, Priced at $50,000

With the hybrid models in its line-up performing as good as they've always did, despite the quality problems Toyota faced recently, the carmaker is already looking ahead and plans the future generation eco-cars. Aside for the plug-in hybrids undergoing testing, Toyota has returned to on older project, that of the hydrogen car.

The carmaker says the first hydrogen-powered vehicle wearing a Toyota badge will be probably a sedan and will arrive sometime in 2015. Since the biggest impediment in the path of this type of vehicle, the price, has been completely removed, Toyota now estimates it will be affordable.

According to Yoshihiko Masuda, Toyota's managing director for advanced cars, cited by Autonews, the price of a hydrogen vehicle has been reduced by nearly 90 percent since 2000. This would mean Toyota could market such a vehicle at around $50,000.

“Our target is, we don't lose money with introduction of the vehicle," Masuda was quoted as saying. “Production cost should be covered within the price of the vehicle."

Toyota is lagging behind other Japanese and global carmakers, who already have several hydrogen-models on the roads, testing. Mazda for instance has the Premacy Hydrogen RE hybrid and the RX-8 Hydrogen RE, GM has the HydroGen4 and Mercedes is already gearing up for the production of the B-Klasse F-Cell.

Because, unlike oil for fuel or coal for electricity, "hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and we can have it forever," as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said recently.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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