Toyota Claims Hybrid Fuel Cell-Based Vehicles Will Be Competitive For 30 Years 

Toyota has been pushing hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles for almost two decades now. Of all the major automotive brands, it has been the one that stands out for not being bullish towards electric vehicles.

And yet again that's happened. In answering an investor question about the company's newly minted electric efforts, Shigeki Terashi, a director at Toyota said, " speaking from Toyota's headquarters in Aichi prefecture, said that in the years leading up to 2050, different options including hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles need to compete against each other so that the company is left with the best options."

The Mirai is Toyota's high-end emissions-free play, though it is based on fuel cell technology

This is not new considering Akio Toyoda, who is the grandson of the founder of Toyota and the current President has kept bad-mouthing electric car technology till recently when investor pressure forced Toyota to invest further in the EV space.

Toyota announced earlier this year that it would be bringing some battery-powered electric vehicles to the US. It plans on bringing two cars powered by an electric powertrain. Despite this plan, it continues to push hybrid vehicles and its fuel cell-powered hydrogen cars like the Mirai.

One thing is true - Hydrogen-powered vehicles have some advantages over electric vehicles especially when one talks about range, however fuel cell remains a more expensive technology to implement at scale and it also has some safety concerns shrouding it. Moreover, globally, the infrastructure is being developed to support a future that has mostly EVs which is a challenge for the Japanese majors' Honda and Toyota who have bet the far on hydrogen power.