Honda To Market Fuel-Cell Autos Along With Toyota

TOKYO, Nov 22, 2002; Reuters reported that Honda Motor Co said on Friday it had won Japanese government approval to market fuel cell cars and would start marketing the environmentally friendly vehicles from December 2, the same day as Toyota Motor Corp.

Fuel cell vehicles are touted as the car of the future since they cause virtually no harm to the environment, emitting only heat and pure water as by-products.

Japan's top two automakers will become the first in the world to put the zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road, but full commercialisation is still years away.

Toyota and Honda lead the world in ecologically friendly technology, and are currently the only sellers of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

But commercialisation of fuel cell cars is expected to take at least 10 years since they require massive spending on infrastructure to build hydrogen fuelling stations.

Japan at present has only three such stations.

Honda said it would also deliver five of its "FCX" fuel cell vehicles to the city of Los Angeles on December 2.

In July, Honda became the first automaker to be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board (CARB) to market the cars.

Toyota said this week it planned to deliver its "FCHV" fuel cell vehicles to two universities in California on December 2.

A spokesman said the automaker expects CARB approval by the end of this month.

Honda plans to release about 30 of its four-seater FCX cars in Japan and the United States over the next two or three years.

In Japan it will begin leasing the FCX to the Cabinet Office for 800,000 yen ($6,522) a month over a year.

The leasing cost in the United States will be announced on December 2, at a delivery ceremony to be held in Los Angeles and attended by the mayor and Honda President Hiroyuki Yoshino.

Toyota will charge 1.2 million yen ($9,784) for its five-seater FCHV in Japan under a 30-month contract with four ministries initially.