Toyota To Sell 30,000 Fuel Cell Vehicles Annually By 2020
By Paulo Acoba
Toyota basically pushed all its poker chips into the center of the alternative fuels poker table.
Toyota is banking on the future of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in a big way. Earlier today (Oct. 14, 2015) Toyota unveiled its environmental targets for the next 35 years which included such bold goals like reducing new vehicle CO2 emissions by 90 percent when compared to Toyota’s 2010 Global Average and completely eliminating emissions from its car production cycle. Reducing global emissions on that large of a scale does largely hinge on Toyota selling up to 30,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles annually with over a third of those sales coming from their home country, Japan. In a day in age where certain manufacturers are trying to game the emissions systems (coughDieselGatecough,) Toyota has taken advantage of these uncertain times and pushed out some positive press that they’re serious enough to pursue.
"Key Activities and goals at present include achieving global sales of over 30,000 fuel cell vehicles around or after 2020. In Japan, selling at least 1,000 fuel cell vehicles per month (well in excess of 10,000 per year.)"
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Earlier this month Toyota did mention that there was a large interest for fuel cell vehicles in California with over 1,900 pre-orders of their Toyota Mirai, Toyota’s first effort for a FCV into the otherwise unknown market. Toyota is hoping that other automakers do share their vision as they are releasing more than 5,680 fuel cell patents to the world to push a few manufacturers to support the development of a hydrogen infrastructure. Currently there are only nine operational hydrogen refueling stations in California compared to dozens of electric supercharger stations thanks to Tesla and the ability to recharge at home already well established.
It’s a bold move from the Japanese automaker and will certainly see more FCV’s on the road in the near future. If they do meet their goals is an entirely different story with numerous factors at play.
Next: Will The Toyota Mirai Be Hollywood's Next It Car?