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Toyota Projects 5000 to 10,000 Annual Sales for FCV Hydrogen Car

By Alex Nishimoto | December 12, 2013 |

6 New stories published within the last 24 hours

Toyota Fcv Concept Front End

Toyota Fcv Concept Front End 02

Toyota Fcv Concept Hard Front

Toyota Fcv Concept Hard Rear

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Toyota's FCV Concept bowed at the Tokyo Motor Show last month, and the Japanese automaker has set lofty goals for its upcoming hydrogen-powered car. Automotive News reports Toyota hopes to sell between 5000 and 10,000 units when the production version of the FCV arrives in early 2015.

Toyota Fcv Concept Front End 02

When Toyota built fuel cell vehicles for demonstration purposes in 2007, the cost for each hydrogen system topped a reported $1 million. Since then, costs have been dramatically reduced, enough for chief officer of Toyota's R&D division Soichiro Okudaira to project that fuel cell vehicles will be price-competitive with other zero-emission cars before 2030. In an interview with Automotive News, Okudaira said, "Beyond 2020…fuel cell cars will be considered just one alternative of the eco cars." Toyota expects the hydrogen fuel cell system in the FCV production model to cost less than 5 million yen (about $48,500), which would be roughly half the car's expected 72,000-euro (about $100,000) price tag in Europe. When we drove a Toyota fuel cell vehicle prototype in Japan, we learned that the car could cost as little as $50,000 in the U.S. Much of the decrease in cost comes from reducing the amount of platinum in the fuel cell catalyst. To help spread production costs, the FCV will share components like the electric motor and electronics with Toyota hybrids. However, the hydrogen-powered car won't share a platform with the next-gen Prius, as the fuel cell vehicle will be heavier and require a different body structure and layout, though the fuel cell stack will reportedly shrink to be able to fit underneath the front seats. In addition to the improved engineering, Toyota believes that larger production volumes will contribute to fuel cell savings. That makes meeting the automaker's sales goals critically important to future hydrogen-powered products from Toyota. By 2020, Toyota plans to "further reduce the cost of the fuel cell unit to one-fifth," according to Toyota R&D's Okudaira. When it arrives in 2015, the FCV production model will join the Hyundai Tuscon fuel cell variant, which the Korean automaker plans to start leasing in Los Angeles starting next year. California recently passed a law to fund the construction of at least 100 public hydrogen filling stations by 2024, so here's hoping the infrastructure is sufficiently bolstered by the time the next wave of fuel cell vehicles arrives. Source: Automotive New Europe (Subscription required)

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13 comments

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itsjessebaby

Toyota, always on the forefront of boredom. They were the first with the Hybrids and now this. LOL they are so adamant on being boring.

Alex daOriginal

haha good luck toyota

you have no infrastructure outside of like LA or SanFran for hydrogen...

straferhoo

Looks like someone knocked the chin off it's face.

Autoray74

Racer X your economy car is ready. You will be car pooling with George Jetson

Autoray74

-hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....what the blue bloody blazes is that?

Dwight Yoakam

@Autoray74 What it is Neanderthal is a car that emits zero emissions, except water, ooohh...and uses no oil that we have to buy from the Middle East..if you know what that means

jamie hayungs

Ummmmm........ I think Toyota needs to start drug testing all employees.

UnbiasedAlways

I always wondered what a Corolla with the mumps looked like

TheStigsDesiCousin

lol I don't see how this would be picked over Honda's upcoming 2015 fuel cell car, a surprisingly large number of articles are quiet about the Honda too. Like I always see the Toyota being compared with the Hyundai. I feel like the Honda would perform better, the concept already looked better at least, plus as far as I know Honda's been pursuing Fuel Cell tech for quite a while...
I also wonder, would Federal Tax credit apply to these cars? bringing them considerably closer to 40k

TheClassicCarFactory

Animals are going to take up residence in those grilles.....

Land Rovers

AHA HAHAHA, oh, ther're serious.

Apex_Missing_Ape

I love new technology, and I love crazy designs, but this concept is one of the ugliest cars I've ever laid eyes on. Hats off to the engineers but the designers should have their heads off. Lets hope the finished product is a very distant cousin aesthetically.

Mike the car nut

Agreed. They managed to mask this technology in an even worse grille than a Lexus has.

But props to them for pursuing this tech.

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