Tokyo, Japan - Toyota has been swamped by orders for its first mass market hydrogen fuel-cell cars, with demand in the first month nearly four times higher than expected for the whole year.
The company had planned to sell 400 Marai sedans in Japan in 2015 - but has received more than 1500 orders since its launch in mid-December. Roughly 60 percent of those orders are from government offices and corporate fleets, with the remaining 40 percent from individual consumers.
Unexpectedly high demand for the environmentally friendly four-door car - which has a ¥6.7 million (R662 000) price tag - means early buyers might have a bit of a wait.
“Due to the large volume of orders received,” a company statment read, “Toyota forecasts a significantly longer time to delivery than originally expected.”
HARMLESS EMISSIONS
Fuel-cell cars are seen as the Holy Grail of green cars as they are powered by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, which emits nothing more harmful than water vapour from its exhaust.
But limited range and a lack of refuelling stations have hampered development of fuel-cells and their cousin, all-electric cars, which environmentalists say could play a vital role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming.
Toyota claims the Mirai can travel about 650km without refuelling, three times further than most electric cars, and its tank can be filled in a few minutes like petrol-engined vehicles.
The car will hit the United States and some European countries, including Britain, Germany and Denmark, this year, Toyota has said.
It hopes to sell more than 3000 in the US by the end of 2017, and up to 100 a year in Europe.
News of the rapid success of the Mirai - which means “future” in Japanese - came just after Honda unveiled the newest version of its FCV fuel-cell car at the Detroit auto show, with the vehicle set to hit the market in 2016.
On Thursday Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said he wanted all government departments to use fuel-cell cars, and pledged to cut red tape to make it easier to set up hydrogen re-fuelling stations. Toyota has also announced it will make thousands of patents for fuel cell vehicles royalty-free in an effort to encourage other automakers into the new industry.
AFP