Toyota slashes fuel cell costs well ahead of market launch

Toyota’s first mass-market hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is still at least four years away from hitting dealer lots, but the Japanese automaker says it is already making great strides in manufacturing costs and production times.

Speaking at the 2011 Management Briefing Seminars currently being held in Traverse City, Michigan, Toyota program manager Justin Ward said that Toyota has been able to eliminate some of the high costs associated with fuel cell vehicles by reducing the amount of platinum needed in the production process and by moving the insulation of hydrogen tanks in-house.

Combined with other improvements along the way, Ward says the current cost of producing one fuel cell vehicle has dropped to $129,000 per unit. Although that still seems astronomically high, the cost of a fuel cell vehicle was well over $1 million just six-years ago.

Toyota expects fuel cell costs to continue to fall over the next few years, with the company’s first production fuel cell vehicle likely to carry a price of about $64,000.

“We’re finding ways to reduce the cost through manufacturing improvements, and we expect to make a lot of gains,” Ward said.

Toyota is hoping to have its first fuel cell vehicle on dealer lots by 2015. Toyota has revealed that the car will take the form of a sedan, but has not announced what segment it will compete in our which brand it will be sold under.

Source: Drew Johnson, LeftLane