TOYOTA INTRODUCES THE HYDROGEN FUEL CELL AUTOMOBILE–PRICE TAG $69,000–WHILE HYUNDAI LEASES A HYDROGEN POWERED CROSSOVER FOR $499 IN CA

Toyota Motor’s vision of a hydrogen future will begin with a $69,000 car.
That’s the price of Toyota’s new fuel cell vehicle, the world’s largest carmaker said in a statement Wednesday. The Camry-sized car will go on sale to Japanese consumers with a sticker price of about 7 million yen ($68,690) before April, followed by debuts in the U.S. and Europe months later, it said.

The car represents the path Toyota will take toward zero emissions, choosing fuel cells over the plug-in electric technologies embraced by the likes of Tesla Motors. The maker of the Prius will join Hyundai Motor Co. in facing the challenge of making these vehicles affordable and easier to use given the lack of refueling infrastructure.
“If there are no charging stations and generous subsidies that lower the transaction price, what’s the point in buying one?” said Koji Endo, an analyst at Advanced Research Japan. “The actual transaction price matters more than the sticker price, so sales will depend on how much they can get in subsidies.”

Toyota is in talks with governments in Japan and other countries on subsidizing the car, Mitsuhisa Kato, Toyota’s executive vice president, said.

Toyota first developed a fuel cell car in 1996, a year before the Prius made its debut in Japan. It has since used the hybrid technology in the Prius by swapping the gasoline engine with a fuel cell stack. Hyundai began offering a hydrogen-powered Tucson crossover via $499-a-month leases this month in California.

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