Japan Clears Toyota and Honda Fuel Cell Vehicles for Wider Sale
17 June 2005
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) has given “motor vehicle type certification” to both the Toyota FCHV and the Honda FCX.
Up to now, MLIT granted certification to individual fuel cell vehicles for the purpose of testing on public roads. With new “type” certification, however, fuel cell vehicles no longer need to be cleared individually.
This thus is one step on the way to broader production and sales.
Toyota plans to begin wider leasing its FCHV 1 July. Since limited marketing of the FCHV began in Japan and the US in December 2002, 11 FCHVs have been leased in Japan and five in the US.
Honda has delivered a total of 19 FCX fuel cell vehicles to customers in the US and Japan since December 2002, when it delivered FCXs to both the Japanese Cabinet Office and the City of Los Angeles on the same day.
The company plans to begin leasing the FCX to private individuals in the US sometime this year.
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