One of the technologies that hasn’t yet become available for mainstream vehicles is the fuel-cell system, with various applications currently being developed by multiple automotive producers worldwide.
The latest news in the field comes from the Japanese carmaker Toyota, which recently announced that it has managed to reduce the cost for creating fuel-cell vehicles by 90 percent since the mid 2000s, as businessweek reports.The achievement that could be translated into the development of a production destined hydrogen vehicle that would be priced at $50,000.
The company achieved that by significantly reducing the quantity of platinum used in the fuel cell system, as well as developing less expensive ways of producing the thin film used in the fuel cells and the carbon fiber hydrogen fuel tanks.
Toyota is willing to make efforts to market such a vehicle, but it doesn’t want to lose money by retailing it. The vehicle should enter the market by 2015.
“Our target is, we don’t lose money with introduction of the vehicle,” Yoshihiko Masuda, Toyota’s managing director for advanced autos was quoted by the aforementioned source. “Production cost should be covered within the price of the vehicle.”
The executive added that Toyota’s first fuel-cell vehicle will probably be a sedan that will offer a driving range equal to that of a petrol powered car. However, the eco vehicle will come with a higher price tag, compared to a traditional car.
Google News