Toyota To Launch World's 1st Consumer Fuel-Cell Vehicle Dec. 15

TOKYO, JAPAN - NOV. 18: Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will start selling its Mirai hydrogen-powered vehicle in Japan on Dec. 15, becoming the world's first automaker to launch a fuel-cell vehicle for general consumers. The Japanese carmaker aims to sell about 400 units of the vehicle, priced at 7,236,000 yen, about $62,000, domestically by the end of 2015 and to launch it in the United States and Europe around next summer. The Mirai, which means future in Japanese, can travel 650 kilometers on a single tank of hydrogen and emits only water vapor, Toyota said. Refueling takes about three minutes. The four-door sedan uses a system that features both fuel-cell and hybrid technologies, and also includes Toyota's new proprietary fuel-cell stack and high-pressure hydrogen tanks, it said. "This is the beginning of an innovation that goes beyond the Prius," Toyota's Executive Vice President Mitsuhisa Kato said at a press conference, referring to the world's first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, also made by Toyota.