Toyota reaffirms its plans to launch a hydrogen car in 2015

The Japanese brand has stated that development of its first production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is proceeding normally. Last year, also in August, Toyota suggested we would see it in 2015. With this new announcement, it has committed to meeting that launch date and not delaying it thanks to the advances it is achieving. It has also offered new details about this model.

It will be a saloon the size of the Avensis. Its design will be inspired by the FCV-R prototype it showed at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, which we showed you at Highmotor from the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The first preview of the definitive version will materialise in a concept that Toyota will bring to the motor show in the Japanese capital this year.

The propulsion system of this vehicle will use the Hybrid Synergy Drive employed in Toyota’s hybrids. The components that will be replaced are the combustion engine, swapped for a hydrogen fuel cell stack, and the petrol tank, swapped for high-pressure hydrogen tanks. The electrical components, on the other hand, will be the same, and it will likewise have 21 kW batteries acting as storage for energy recovered during braking.

The many years of prototypes and tests with hydrogen have allowed Toyota to get the fuel cell to occupy and weigh half of what was installed in the first experiment of 2008. Other progress has been the hybrid system’s ability to operate at very low temperatures and the reduction from four hydrogen tanks to two. Both these and the fuel cell are stored under the floor of the car so as not to take up interior space.

Toyota still has two major hurdles to overcome: the high production costs, which it is trying to mitigate by manufacturing the fuel cell and tanks itself, and the very scarce presence of places to refuel with hydrogen. As for price, Toyota currently admits it would not go below 82,000 euros. Nevertheless, another of its commitments is to make it cheaper as much as it can so that it is truly “affordable” when the vehicle launches in Europe, the USA and Japan.

Via | Autocar