Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, known as the "father of the Prius" for his work on the world's best-selling hybrid car, said fuel cell vehicles will take longer than gasoline-electric autos to become popular because of the need to build infrastructure.
"The hybrid sold much faster than we had anticipated," Uchiyamada, 70, told Bloomberg Television's Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "As for the FCV cars, we assume it won't be as fast as hybrid as the infrastructure needs to be prepared before it becomes major in the market."
Fuel cell vehicles are a cornerstone of Toyota's plan to rid 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from its autos by 2050. To facilitate the infrastructure build-out, Toyota and four of its biggest car-making peers joined oil and gas giants including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA with plans to invest a combined €10 billion ($10.7 billion) in hydrogen-related products within five years.
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