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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Biddle who wrote (5587)	1/2/2003 5:38:11 PM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12230

Fuel-cell cars finally get street respect The Asahi Shimbun asahi.com Five fuel cell-powered cars leased by Toyota and Honda to the government hit the road in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district on Monday, the first official use of the eco-friendly cars on public roads in history. Toyota Motor Corp. is leasing four of its FCHV fuel-cell vehicles to four government bodies, while Honda Motor Co. is renting one FCX fuel-cell model to the Cabinet Office. The industry drag race to put the first fuel-cell car on the streets ended in a tie, with the two automakers beginning their leases the same day. In the morning, Toyota President Hiroshi Okuda and Honda President Hiroyuki Yoshino looked on as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rode shotgun in the two companies' cars at his official residence in Tokyo. ``The car is quieter than I expected. It was a light and smooth ride,'' Koizumi said. Unlike exhaust-belching cars, the worst thing fuel-cell vehicles emit is water. They generate electricity through the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen in the air. In February, Koizumi announced a policy to popularize fuel-cell technology in the next three years through automobiles and household electricity supply. Also Monday, Toyota began leasing one fuel-cell car each to the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Davis. Honda, meanwhile, delivered one to the city of Los Angeles for municipal use. Toyota plans to lease 20 fuel-cell vehicles in Japan and the United States over one year, while Honda hopes to unload 30 of them over two to three years. While fuel-cell models can technically go 300 kilometers without refueling, their range is severely limited by the scarcity of hydrogen fueling stations. The five cars leased to the government will recharge at a station set up in the courtyard of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. For fuel-cell models to become widespread, however, more fueling stations will have to be made available nationwide. Another hitch right now is the hefty price tag. Toyota charges 1.2 million yen a month for a 30-month lease, while Honda levies 800,000 yen a month over one year.