Toyota Motors, world’s top auto maker, is planning fuel-cell car by 2015 in its attempt to be ahead in the race for green autos. Vice President Masatami Takimoto said this at the company’s shareholders’ meeting after an investor asked a question about the company’s plans for zero-emission cars.
 

Fuel-cell technology is considered a cutting-edge solution to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It generates electricity by combining fuel – normally hydrogen - with oxygen, thus emitting only water. Toyota began selling limited editions of fuel-cell hybrid vehicle in 2002 in the US and Japan, using technology from its Prius hybrids. But auto makers have concentrated on using the more affordable technology used for battery-powered vehicles or hybrids.

Fuel-cell systems can be on the expensive side because of the technology involved. It is also difficult to store enough hydrogen in a vehicle to allow it to travel the distance. Toyota is depending on green cars to dig itself out of the economic slump. It slipped into the red zone for the first time in 70 years last fiscal, when it recorded a net loss of almost 437 billion yen.

The current fiscal could be worse with the net loss expected to be 550 billion yen. The vehicle sales are expected to dip to 6.5 million. The company is planning to expand its line of hybrids and cut costs to return to the green zone. It launched Prius in May, which became the best-selling car in Japan that month.