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Toyota hydrogen car $50,000
Transportation, May 12 2010 (The Hydrogen Journal)
- Toyota thinks it 'may be able to' price its first retail hydrogen fuel cell vehicle at around $50,000, according to Yoshihiko Masuda, Toyota’s managing director for advanced autos, speaking at the US National Hydrogen Association annual conference, reported by Bloomberg.
Currently it can make a hydrogen fuel cell car for around $100,000, compared to a cost of about $1m per car around 2005 - but it is looking to continue to reduce prices by a further 50 per cent before starting retail sales.
Price reductions were achieved by reducing platinum requirement and finding cheaper ways to produce the thin film. Current fuel cells use 30g of platinum - and Toyota aims t4o reduce that to 10g.
At current platinum prices of $1697 per ounce, 30g of platinum costs $1800 and 10g costs $600.
The wants to reach a price which is low enough to attract consumers but high enough to cover vehicle production costs.
The company believes that at a price of $50k, sales in the US would be "small but with some support" - i.e. there wouldn't be many customers but there would be a few.
The company is aiming to achieve 100,000 miles and 10 years use for each vehicle.
