Toyota wants to virtually eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles from its fleet by 2050, and is betting that hydrogen cars, rather than electric vehicles, will be the long-term answer.
The Japanese maker recently introduced the Mirai, its first retail fuel-cell vehicle, and though sales have so far been measured in the hundreds, the target is to reach 30,000 annually by 2020, and even higher in the years beyond.
According to nbcnews.com, a number of other automakers are experimenting with hydrogen power; Hyundai already offers a fuel-cell version of its Tucson SUV, and Honda will launch a retail model next year.
Toyota’s commitments come at a time when the auto industry has been shaken by a scandal at Germany’s Volkswagen AG, in which it admitted it cheated on diesel emissions tests covering millions of cars.
Toyota projected its annual sales of fuel cell vehicles will reach more than 30,000 by about 2020, which is 10 times its projected figure for 2017.
Fuel cells run on hydrogen and are zero-emissions. Toyota’s Mirai fuel cell went on sale late last year. Toyota has received 1,500 orders for the Mirai in Japan, and it just went on sale in the U.S. and Europe.
Annual sales of hybrid vehicles will reach 1.5 million and by 2020 Toyota would have sold 15 million hybrids, nearly twice what it has sold so far around the world, it said.
Toyota is launching an all-new version of the Prius, the world’s first hybrid, and expects to boost fuel economy by 10%, to around 55 miles per gallon.
The Toyota Prius is currently the world’s best-selling hybrid though, like other battery-based vehicles, sales have slowed in the wake of declining petroleum prices.
The 2016 Toyota Prius features a surprise move by the maker, with the automaker offering buyers a choice of a conventional nickel-metal hybrid battery, or a pack using more advanced lithium-ion chemistry that can deliver more range in electric-only mode, added nbcnews.com.