Toyota announced on Friday that they intend to cut 95% of the
cost from fuel cell cars by 2015. Sounds great, until you realize that Toyota estimates that the current
price is about $1 million. For those not inclined to do the math, that puts the 2015 price at $50,000. Ouch.
Toyota is also considering whether to offer a fuel-cell vehicle for public sale earlier than 2015 and at
a price well above $50K that they’re dubbing the “Ferrari of hydrogen”.
Such a vehicle would be purchased by affluent customers, presumably for the purpose of making a statement (much like
the Prius is currently used by the Hollywood set), but the issue of fueling points – or lack thereof
– is thought to be a major obstacle. On that issue, it?s now said that the Toyota-GM talks were intended in
part to show the fuel industry how serious automakers are about hydrogen. Setting up 1,000 fueling points is
estimated to cost approximately $12 billion; a lot of money, but only about two year?s worth of profits
for ExxonMobil. And no, Toyota didn?t mention how we?d produce all that hydrogen.