Toyota Unveils 2015 Fuel Cell Sedan
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 1:48 pm
Will Retail in Japan For Around $68,703
By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
TransportEvolved.com
After months of hype, Toyota has unveiled its 2015 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Sedan, the first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle to go on sale in the world. Based on the Hydrogen Fuel Cell concept car unveiled by Toyota at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, it will go on sale in Japan next year at an approximate price of ($68,703).
Unveiled (June 25) at a special press conference in Tokyo, Japan, the Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan will initially be sold in Japan, with sales due to start in specific U.S. and European markets next summer. Other markets will follow as specific areas or countries develop their hydrogen fuel refilling infrastructure.
The H2 fuel cell vehicle will hit a claimed range of 435 miles in Japanese test-cycle conditions.
Despite being less than a year from launch, Toyota has yet to give its first ever Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle a name. Nor has it offered any concrete specifications for the vehicle, something it says will follow in due course. As a consequence, Toyota is only willing to cite price as being "around" ($68,703), something which may change between markets and with final vehicle specification.
The idea however, is clear. At the ($68,703) mark, Toyota is essentially underwriting a large portion of the development costs of its early hydrogen fuel cell vehicle cars in the same way it underwrote its now famous Prius family of hybrids. Although its cost will certainly exclude a large portion of the car-buying public, its price sits well within the price range of other high-end and niche-market vehicles.
Prices have yet to be set for European and U.S. markets...
As for range, performance and capabilities? Toyota hasn’t laid out anything specific, but we do know from the FCV Concept unveiled last year at the Tokyo Motor show that the car Toyota’s FCV Sedan is based on had a claimed range of around 435 miles on the Japanese JC08 test cycle from a tank full (12 pounds) of hydrogen fuel. Given how overly optimistic the JC08 test cycle is, we’d guess a more realistic range to be somewhere between 350 and 400 miles per fill.
The concept car supposedly managed 106 mph, with 0-60 times still a mystery. We’d expect the production version to match that.
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