Toyota is shifting its focus and investment toward making more hydrogen cell powered vehicles. The company will expand its clean operation to buses, trucks and even toward making more sedans and SUVs. The second generation Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) is expected to be available to customers after 2020. However, rivals and competitors are rife in condoning the technology.
The maker Prius believes that FCV vehicles can become commercially viable by lowering their prices.
“We’re going to shift from limited production to mass production, reduce the number of expensive materials like platinum used in FCV components, and make the system more compact and powerful,” Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief engineer of the Mirai, said in an interview with Reuters.
By 2025 the automaker hopes to expand its hydrogen cell powered vehicles (FCV) lineup. However, we do not have any details about future models yet. Word is out though that Toyota has already crafted FCV based light-weight vehicles and large transport truck prototypes. This move puts it in competition with Tesla and Volvo, both of which have already introduced green trucks for fleet owners.
“We’re going to use as many parts from existing passenger cars and other models as possible in fuel cell trucks,” said Ikuo Ota, manager of new business planning for fuel cell projects at Toyota. “Otherwise, we won’t see the benefits of mass production.”
Toyota also plans to improve the Mirai’s performance by extending the vehicle’s range from 500 km to 750 km and later to 1,000 km by 2025.