Toyota is planning to release a new generation of hydrogen fuel cells to the market in three years, which should make hydrogen cars cheaper to produce, simpler to maintain and easier to drive with more range per gas tank.
The main question that remains unanswered is whether light passenger cars like the Toyota Mirai (in the gallery below) will be affected. The press release focuses heavily on the commercial transports industry.
To minimize the operation costs, the automaker plans to launch its own hydrogen production in Japan and Thailand. The domestic industrial complex will utilize electrolysis to extract hydrogen, while the one in Thailand will reprocess gas from biowaste.
As a result, the fuel cell arrays in Toyota hydrogen vehicles are expected to cost only half as much as current designs while offering 20% more range per tank and being cheaper to maintain.
Trucks and buses will constitute the majority in Toyota’s hydrogen-powered commercial transports fleet. By the beginning of the next decade, the company plans to churn out up to 200,000 such vehicles every year. Ramping up the production volume like that will mean a further reduction of costs across the board.
