Toyota has announced plans to produce the Toyota FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) and begin selling their newest clean energy car by the end of this year. The official launch is planned for December even though the hydrogen refueling infrastructure in many markets is likely to be lacking initially. Toyota is convinced the hydrogen fuel cell hybrid vehicles are the future of consumer cars, but they will soon face stiff competition from other manufactures developing their own fuel cell vehicle technologies. There are also the current more established hybrid and electric vehicles already in this fast growing clean energy market. The race is on for the minds and wallets of the cleaner energy consumers.
Toyota touts the FCV as the future. From Toyota: “Q. How does a fuel cell vehicle work? A. The fuel cell utilizes the same technology developed for our hybrid synergy drive systems but the gasoline engine is replaced with a fuel cell stack. Within the fuel cell stack, hydrogen combines with oxygen to produce electricity that powers the vehicle.”
“Oh, and it only emits water vapor.”
Resource: Hydrogen Fuel News article
Resource: Toyota FCV (official page)