Toyota has been swamped by orders for its first mass market
hydrogen fuel-cell car, the company said Thursday, with demand in the first
month nearly four times higher than expected for the whole year.
The Japanese auto giant said it had received more than 1,500
orders for its "Mirai" sedan since its launch in mid-December. It had
planned to sell 400 in Japan over 12 months.
Roughly 60 percent of those orders are from government
offices and corporate fleets, with the remaining 40 percent from individual
consumers, the company said in a statement.
Unexpectedly high demand for the environmentally friendly
four-door car which has a 6.7 million yen ($56,900) price tag -- means early
buyers might have a bit of a wait.
"Due to the large volume of orders received, Toyota
forecasts a significantly longer time to delivery than originally expected,"
the statement said.
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 from its exhaust.
But a limited driving range and 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.
The Mirai can travel about 650 kilometres (400 miles)
without refuelling, some three times further than an electric car, and its tank
can be filled in a few minutes like gasoline engine vehicles, according to
Toyota.
The car will hit the US and some European countries,
including Britain, Germany and Denmark, this year, Toyota has said.
It hopes to sell more than 3,000 units by the end of 2017 in
the United States, and up to 100 annually in Europe.
Japanese automakers, including Toyota's rivals Honda and
Nissan, have been leaders in the green car sector.
This week, Honda unveiled the newest version of its FCV
fuel-cell car at the Detroit auto show, with the vehicle set to hit the market
next year.
Toyota has announced it is making thousands of patents for
fuel cell vehicles royalty-free in an effort to encourage other automakers into
the new industry.
News of the rapid success of the Mirai which means
"future" in Japanese -- comes a week after the Tokyo metropolitan
government announced the athlete's village for the 2020 Olympics would be a
futuristic "hydrogen town".
On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he
wants all government departments to use fuel-cell cars, and pledged to cut red
tape so it is easier to set up hydrogen re-fuelling stations.
No comments:
Post a Comment