Toyota Prices the New Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car - Analyst Blog

Toyota Motor Corporation TM has revealed the exterior design and Japan pricing of its hydrogen fuel cell sedan. The automaker first launched the vehicle as a concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show last year.

Toyota plans to launch the vehicle in Japan by Apr 2015. The automaker will be charging around 7 million yen for the vehicle (excluding consumption tax), which will be available at Toyota and Toyopet dealerships in Japan.

Subsequently, Toyota is also planning to launch the vehicle in the U.S. and Europe by summer 2015. However, sales will be limited only to locations where hydrogen refueling infrastructure is established.

Toyota is increasing its focus on developing environment-friendly vehicles. For this it emphasizes on three principles – utilization of diverse energy sources; development of efficient, low-emission vehicles; and bringing about positive environmental changes by popularizing these vehicles.

Hydrogen, which can be produced from a wide variety of energy sources, like solar and wind power, is considered to be an efficient alternative fuel. Besides offering higher energy density than batteries, it is also easy to store.

Toyota has been developing fuel cell vehicles for over 20 years. These vehicles generate electricity through chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The automaker has undertaken several initiatives to improve the fuel cell systems. The new hydrogen fuel cell sedan's performance is similar to that of the gasoline engine vehicles. It provides a range of about 700 km and gets refueled within 3 minutes.

The emission is also not a problem as it emits only water vapor. Toyota believes fuel cell vehicles are ideal environment-friendly vehicles as they do not emit carbon dioxide.

Toyota currently holds a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Fox Factory Holding Corp FOXF, Gentherm Incorporated THRM and Tower International, Inc. TOWR are some better-ranked automobile stocks. All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).