Toyota also is preparing for the day when a pure hydrogen infrastructure is in place. Building on the success of its 1996 hydrogen-absorbing alloy technology, Toyota unveiled its second-generation alloy tank at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show. It can store 2.2kg of gas in 100kg of metal—a 10% improvement over the initial design. Toyota will continue development of hydrogen storage tanks and is poised to meet customers' needs long into the future.
For the present, Toyota is developing the interim step of efficient fuel reforming technology, which may be valuable in bringing fuel cell vehicles to the mass market at a faster pace. While not perfectly emissions-free, hydrocarbon fuels can be a viable source of hydrogen gas. Toyota engineers are examining methanol, natural gas, and even gasoline as interim fuels for fuel cell vehicles."To succeed in a mature world marketplace, we know that the Toyota Fuel Cell
Hybrid Vehicle will need to be technologically reliable and inexpensive enough to mass produce," explains Watanabe. "But the world’s choice of fuel and the creation of infrastructure to deliver that fuel will be crucial to its long-term success."
While governmental bodies and industry players, Toyota included, grapple with the infrastructure problems, engineers are hard at work on advancing the state of fuel cell technology. "Each step forward brings the goal of a zero-emissions vehicle more clearly into view. But widespread adoption of fuel cell technology will still require that production costs be sharply reduced. As Toyota’s hybrid technologies in the Prius are driven by consumers and refined over the years, we also will realize lower costs and higher performance in our Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle research," states Watanabe. "We look forward to the day when it can join the Prius in the showroom."
Fuel Cell Hybrids