Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cell Saloon revealed

The final design for the production Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cell Saloon has been revealed ahead of its arrival in the UK in Summer 2015.

The final design of the production version of the Toyota Fuel Cell Saloon has been revealed ahead of its arrival in the UK next summer, and it’s not a million miles away from the Toyota FCV Concept we saw last year at the Tokyo Motor Show.

It’s not the best-looking car on the planet – the back, in particular, does seem a bit muddled – but it’s what’s under the skin that matters and that the FCEV is, subject to a proper refuelling infrastructure, a move forward for transport in a way BEVs will never be.

The Toyota Fuel Cell saloon will offer performance and range very similar to an ICE car and, more importantly, can be refuelled in the same sort of time as an ICE car, which means electric car benefits with none of the range anxiety concerns that put most buyers off.

Toyota plans to launch the Fuel Cell Saloon in Japan in April 2015 in areas a hydrogen refuelling network is already under development, with the first cars arriving in the UK and Europe in the Summer of 2015.

Karl Schlicht, Toyota Europe Executive VP, said:

We are very excited by the arrival of fuel cell technology. Of course there are many challenges ahead, such as the availability of fuelling infrastructure and customer awareness. But our history with hybrid gives us all the experience we need to bring a new technology to the market.

In Europe we will be taking it step by step, gradually introducing the car in selected markets. But we are confident that hydrogen will become increasingly popular as a way of powering vehicles.

In Japan, Toyota has priced the Fuel Cell Saloon at £40,450 which is, as Toyota promised, in line with the cost of BEVs. What that price will turn out to be when the Fuel Cell car arrives in the UK is anyone’s guess, but we’d be surprised if it’s not similarly pitched.