Toyota wasn’t the first automobile manufacturer to introduce a hybrid car, but they were the ones who popularized hybrids with the Toyota Prius. Similarly, Toyota isn’t the only company working on a hydrogen-powered car, but they’re aiming to be the first ones to sell them.
Honda was the first to launch a car with a hydrogen fuel cell, the FCX Clarity, in 2008, but those are only for lease, and only to a limited number of customers. Toyota actually plans to sell , not lease, their hydrogen-powered car to the European market by 2015.
It won’t come cheap, however. Due to the highly advanced technology at work in Toyota’s zero-emission hydrogen car, Toyota is looking at a price tag in the €100,000 range, or $138,000. Like the FCX Clarity, it will only be sold to a limited number of people – then again, it’s not like very many people have €100,000 on a car powered by hydrogen.
“We see pure battery-powered vehicles to be just a solution for small trips in the city, while a plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid is the best solution both for weekday urban commuting and weekend trips,” Toyota Europe Vice President for Product Planning & Marketing Alain Uyttenhoven told Automotive News .
via Car Scoop
