Toyota launches its hydrogen-fuelled vision of the future, the Mirai

There will only be a few hundred, and they won't be cheap, but Toyota is about to take its first small step into the unproven market for emissions-free, hydrogen-powered vehicles.

The world's largest carmaker announced yesterday it would begin selling hydrogen-fuel-cell cars in Japan on December 15 and in the United States and Europe in mid-2015. The sporty-looking, four-door Toyota Mirai will retail for 6.7 million yen (HK$450,000) before taxes. Toyota hopes to sell 400 in Japan and 300 in the rest of the world in the first year.

"In time, the fuel-cell vehicle will become mainstream. We wanted to take the first step," Mitsuhisa Kato, a Toyota executive vice president, said. "We want to be at the leading edge."

Fuel-cell vehicles run on compressed hydrogen gas, which in the Mirai's case is stored in two tanks mounted underneath the vehicle. They emit no exhaust, though fossil fuels are used in the production of hydrogen and to pressurise it. Both Honda and Hyundai are also experimenting with limited sales and leases of fuel-cell cars. Honda showed a fuel-cell concept car on Monday.

Besides the relatively high cost, buyers will have to contend with finding fuel. Only a few dozen hydrogen filling stations have been built worldwide, though governments are subsidising the construction of more.

Its future depends on whether makers can bring down the price, and whether a wide-enough network of filling stations can be built. Yoshikazu Tanaka, deputy chief engineer for Toyota's next- generation vehicle development, said it would take 10-20 years before the company sold tens of thousands of the model per year.