[2007 Toyota Hybrid X Concept pictured above]
There’s no doubt that Toyota, with its Prius, is the carmaker that made hybrid cars an everyday word in our vocabulary. Granted, other companies like Honda with its first, odd-looking Insight, offered their own models, but it was the best-selling Prius that made hybrid cars popular to the masses.
As emission regulations become tougher though, even Toyota is looking for ways to offer even “greener” cars. All-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf are one option. But Toyota wants to go the extra mile and launch a new fuel cell model in Europe by 2015.
Toyota is not the first carmaker to manufacture a hydrogen-powered car as most major car companies have created fuel cell prototypes. For example, Honda launched the FCX Clarity in 2008, but it is only available for lease for a limited number of customers.
Toyota’s zero-emissions hydrogen car will actually be sold in the European market in four years’ time – albeit again, at limited numbers, since it will have a very high price tag due to its extremely advanced, and thus costly, technology.
“We could expect a fuel cell vehicle to retail at about €100,000 [US$138,000] in Europe,” Toyota Europe Vice President for Product Planning & Marketing, Alain Uyttenhoven, told Automotive News.
The Toyota exec, however, does not diminish the importance of hybrid models, on which Toyota has recently decided to base its recovery: “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 for both weekday urban commuting and weekend trips,” Uyttenhoven added.
Now, 100,000 euros for a futuristic fuel cell car is quite a lot, and Toyota is entering unchartered waters competing with brands that have much more cache, even if their offerings pollute more.
Will the fuel cell Toyota prove to be the Prius of deep-pocketed Europeans? Only time will tell.
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