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Hydrogen Cars Could Hit Roads by Next Year, Automakers Say

The workshop at Toyota's Automobile Museum in Torrance, California, was aimed at bringing fuel cell vehicle manufacturers together with elected, building, public safety and planning officials.

Originally Posted by Penny Arévalo 

Hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars may be ready to hit roads by next year, and the ability to power them up at gas stations is also in the works, officials said.

Three car manufacturers, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, have plans to sell the hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars by 2015 – and Mercedes by 2017, according to Rebecca Lee, a spokeswoman for Toyota.

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There are plans to increase that number to 20 by next year, with 100 more shortly after that, Stephen Ellis, manager of fuel cell vehicle marketing for the American Honda Motor Co., said at a hydrogen vehicle workshop in Torrance.

The workshop at Toyota's Automobile Museum in Torrance, California was aimed at bringing fuel cell vehicle manufacturers together with elected, building, public safety and planning officials.

Find out what's happening in Redondo Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The drive toward hydrogen is in part motivated by California's Zero Emission Vehicle standard which requires a percentage of auto sales be zero-emission vehicles. The requirement for 2014 is 1 percent of sales, moving to 16 percent of sales by 2015. Currently, electric vehicles are the only ones that are zero-emission.The estimated cost for a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car is about $50,000.

That price will go down once demand goes up and the infrastructure is in place, Ellis said.

"What we have is a public-private partnership between state government funding, automakers and people that provide hydrogen for industrial purposes to bring it together at your corner retail gas station," Ellis said. "Then people can drive the cars and drive all over California."

--City News Service


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