AichiInternational.com Toyota Is Taking Fuel Cells Seriously

Online, February 19, 2014 (Newswire.com) - AichiInternational.com: Japanese car giant, Toyota has unveiled what it considers to be the future for electric vehicles; a car powered by electricity from fuel cell technology.

The vehicle, dubbed the Toyota FCV, is unlike most mainstream electric vehicles insofar as it does not make use of a battery. Instead it relies on a hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen is forced into a tank where it combines with air to create water. The process also creates electricity which the fuel cell channels to a motor which propels the car.

"The car was actually revealed last year at the Tokyo Motor Show but this is its North American market debut," said an Aichi International auto sector researcher.

"We think Toyota have been particularly innovative here and shown nerve by breaking away from the herd mentality among car makers with regard to alternatively-powered cars. While everyone else is focusing on lithium-ion batteries and contending with their tendency to catch fire, Toyota has concentrated on fuel cell technology which will allow their car to travel up to 300 miles on a single tank, recharge in 3-5 minutes and only emit plain old water," said the Aichi International researcher.

Toyota has not decided upon a price for the new vehicle but the company was at pains to stress that new advances in technology had made componentry significantly cheaper and that, consequently, the car would be "accessible" and "reasonably-priced".

"We're expecting to see some fairly exciting development in the electric car segment this year but we don't think that many will be as interesting as this one," concluded the Aichi International researcher.