Toyota outlines plans for hydrogen-based society

Toyota said it would cut emissions generated from new vehicles and its production processes over the next several decades and hopes to achieve this with hydrogen and renewable energy.

Toyota outlined yesterday a series of aggressive environmental targets - the earliest would take effect from the end of the decade.

According to the Japanese automaker says it aimed to cut emissions generated by production to roughly half of 2001 levels by 2020, and roughly one-third by 2030.

Emissions generated by new vehicles will be slashed 22 per cent by the end of the decade, as against Toyota's 2010 global average.

By 2050, the carmaker aims to cut emissions from new vehicles 90 per cent and eliminate them altogether at its factories (at new plants and new production lines).

While other automakers are looking to electric vehicles to curb tailpipe emissions, Toyota is betting on hydrogen and hybrid cars. Toyota said it will sell over 30,000 fuel cell (hydrogen) vehicles and 1.5 million hybrids a year by 2020. Furthermore it said it planned to open sales of fuel cell buses by 2017, focusing first on Tokyo.

According to commentators, Toyota was right on track to reaching the hybrid sales goal after sellling 1.2 million hybrid vehicles in 2014. The company expected to reach 8 million in worldwide cumulative hybrid vehicle sales by 2015.

Meanwhile, the US energy department recently announced it would invest over $20 million in the fuel cell and hydrogen technologies industries, following the revelation that the industry was basically rapidly expanding.

Intelligent Energy's director of R&T, Dr Chris Dudfield, said, ''Hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles are a reality for the ''here and now''. ''Energy Department-supported projects have helped reduce the modeled cost of transportation fuel cells by 50 percent since 2006, and more than double durability and reduce the amount of platinum necessary by a factor of five'', forexreportdaily.com reported.

Kiczek also lauded the efforts of the US Senate which passed Resolution 217 on 29 September formally recognising 8 October, as National Hydrogen Fuel Cell Day, as also the efforts of the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association in working toward this recognition. The date was chosen to represent the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008).

Hydrogen fuel cells promise clean cars that emit only water. Several major car manufacturers have recently announced their investments to increase the availability of fuelilng stations, while others are currently rolling out new models and prototypes. (See more: New fuel-cell materials could pave the way for practical hydrogen-powered cars).