Toyota Launching Hydrogen Car This Month, But Honda Delays Its Fuel-Cell Vehicle

Toyota says it will launch its new hydrogen-powered Mirai this month, bringing its first fuel-cell vehicle to market a bit ahead of its original schedule.

Honda, meanwhile, revealed an updated prototype of the hydrogen car it plans to bring to market, though its own plans may be slightly delayed. Nonetheless, it would join not just Toyota but also Hyundai in marketing the alternative powertrain technology. Advocates claim the advanced technology could sidestep the limited range and other problems faced by today’s battery-electric vehicles.

Toyota will start selling the Mirai in Japan on December 15, with dealers in Europe and the U.S. slated to get the hydrogen car in mid-2015. The Japanese giant expects to sell only about 400 in Japanese during the first year and another 300 elsewhere.

Honda's fuel cell car won't hit the streets until 2016. But advocates of hydrogen power note that sales of the original Toyota Prius hybrid were miniscule at first. The familiar gas-electric model is now the world’s best-selling hybrid and was, in 2013, the number one-selling vehicle of all kinds in green-minded California.

Several factors are likely to limit the appeal of the Toyota Mirai, at least initially. For one thing, it will initially sell for 6.7 million yen, or $57,600, in Japan. An even bigger hurdle is the lack of a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. There are only a handful of pumps today, one reason that Toyota – like Honda and Hyundai – will initially limit U.S. sales to the Southern California market.

But regulators in California, as well as in Japan, Germany, and some other parts of the world, are pressing to expand the availability of the lightweight gas in a bid to increase the appeal of hydrogen power.

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