Toyota Aims for $50,000 Fuel-Cell Car by 2015

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http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/05/toyota-50000-fuel-cell-vehicle/

Toyota Aims for $50,000 Fuel-Cell Car by 2015

By Chuck Squatriglia | May 7, 2010 | 1:22 pm

Toyota says it has cut the cost of building fuel-cell vehicles by 90 percent and could sell its first hydrogen vehicle for $50,000 by 2015.

That’s still a big chunk of change, but a bargain compared to the six- or seven-figure price tags the cars are generally thought to cost now. The exorbitant cost has been among the technology’s greatest hurdles and one reason Honda, General Motors and others lease or loan — rather than sell — the few hydrogen-fuel-cell cars they have on the road.

But Toyota says it has cut the cost of building such cars by 90 percent in recent years. It hopes to cut that by another 50 percent in coming years, so it can can sell an “affordable” mid-sized hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicle. Such a car would offer the same range as a conventional auto “with some extra cost,” says Yoshihiko Masuda, Toyota’s managing director of advanced vehicles.

“Our target is, we don’t lose money with introduction of the vehicle,” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid=azCZYWf83AeM">Masuda told Bloomberg. “Production cost should be covered within the price of the vehicle.”

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