Sure, Elon Musk is giving away Tesla patents, but don’t be surprised if more established manufacturers politely decline his offer. Instead of batteries and electric charging stations, players like General Motors, Mercedes, Honda, and Toyota are focusing their efforts on a very different sort of fuel system: hydrogen. Toyota has just revealed that its first commercial hydrogen fuel cell car, a sedan modeled on the earlier FCV concept, will be ready for launch in the US and Europe in the summer of next year, priced at seven million yen, around $69,000, although exact international pricing has yet to be determined. By that time, the hydrogen car and its refueling network may lag significantly behind Tesla’s all-electric offerings, which currently start at less than $60,000 for the base model Tesla S with lifetime fuel costs included, but Toyota and other hydrogen pioneers believe that they’ll eventually gain the upper hand, thanks to their technology’s promise of greater range and quicker refueling.
