Toyota Plans Major Fuel Cell News for LA Auto Show
By John O'Dell October 31, 2007
Toyota Motor Corp., unwilling to cede any ground to rivals GM and Honda in the green game, says it will make a "major" annoucement about its fuel-cell electric vehicle program during its press conference Nov. 14 at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The company is keeping details under wraps, but odds-makers say it is likely to unveil a leasing program for its third generation fuel cell vehicle.
Honda already has said that it will use the LA show to reveal a nearly ready for prime time version of its next-generation fuel cell car, based on the futuristic FCX concept.
The company also is expected to reveal more details of the FCX leasing program it has said it will launch in 2008. Honda has said it will lease nearly 100 of the vehicles to policy makers, trend-setters and even some ordinary people.
GM recently announced that it will place 100 of its Equinox fuel-cell SUVs on tthe roads starting in January. It will lease the vehicles for three-month periods to a variety of drivers.
Toyota's third-generation fuel cell system, which uses a new 70-bar hydrogen storage tank (that's 10,000 pounds per square inch of pressure) to double the range between fill-ups, has been installed on a few Highlander SUVs in Japan. One recently made the 340-mile trip from Osaka to Tokyo with almost 200 miles worth of fuel remaining.
Honda's FCX, in contrast, has a range of 210 miles on a 35-bar, or 5,000 psi, tank between hydrogen fill-ups (although Honda has recorded nearly 300 miles per tank on its advanced concept) , and GM's Equinox gets up to 200 miles per tank .
While fuel cell vehickes are still in the test mode, GM has said it believes the technology is advancing rapidly and that it can have a fuel cell vehicle ready for market by 2010.
The head of Toyota's engine and fuel cell development programs, corporate managing officer Yoshihiko Masuda, told Green Car Advisor in an October 22 interview in Japan that he believes his company can have "a Toyota-quality" fuel cell vehicle ready for retail by 2015.
Although researchers still are working to reduce the size and increase the reliability and durability of automotive fuel cell systems, Masuda said that "the hardest nut to crack will be getting the cost down" so that fuel cell vehicles can be priced competitively.
But don't get your hopes up.
Masuda and others working on fuel cell development say that the vehicles are likely to be ready long before there's a plentiful supply of clean hydrogen fuel or a nationwide distribution and retailing system to get it to the cars.
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