Hyundai has made a surprise announcement on plans to sell hydrogen fuel cell cars beginning in 2012 - three years before Toyota, Honda, and the rest of the competition.
Hyundai plans to beat Toyota's announced $50,000 price tag and deliver the world's first series production fuel cell vehicle in 2012, with 500 FCVs coming off the line that year and more afterwards. Production is planned to ramp up to 10,000 units by 2015, the year when most other automakers will just be getting started on their FCVs.
The first five hundred will likely be leased and will probably go mainly to fleets and similar buyers. Production will increase to at least 1,000 units in 2013, following customer demand.
And so ...
There is a reason most major automakers are working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. They are a more than viable option for zero-emissions vehicles.