Toyota has developed a new fuel-cell hybrid, a car powered by hydrogen and electricity, that can travel more than twice the distance of its predecessor model without filling up, the automaker said yesterday.
The improved model’s maximum cruising range is 830km compared with 330km for Toyota’s previous fuel-cell model, the maker of the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury cars said in a statement.
The FCHV-adv model, which received Japanese government approval on Tuesday, will be available for leasing in Japan later this year, Toyota Motor Corp spokeswoman Kayo Doi said. Pricing and other details weren’t available and overseas plans were still undecided, she said.
Fuel-cell vehicles produce no pollution by running on the power of the chemical reaction when hydrogen stored in a tank combines with oxygen in the air to produce water.
The FCHV-adv from the world’s second biggest automaker also comes with an electric motor and works as a hybrid by switching between that motor and the hydrogen-powered fuel cell. Toyota’s Prius hybrid switches between an electric motor and a standard gasoline engine.
Fuel efficiency in the FCHV-adv was improved 25 percent with better braking and other changes, Toyota said.
The new fuel-cell vehicle can also start and run in temperatures as low as minus 30˚C, it said. Getting a fuel cell to work well in cold weather is a technological challenge.
Major automakers around the world are working on fuel cells and other ecological vehicles, including electric cars and plug-in hybrids, which recharge from an electrical outlet.
Consumer interest in alternative fuels is increasing amid soaring gas prices and worries about global warming.
Rival Honda Motor Co’s revamped fuel-cell vehicle for leasing in California is rolling off a Japanese factory floor later this month.
For 2010, US automaker General Motors Corp is planning a Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric vehicle, while Tokyo-based Nissan Motor Co is planning electric vehicles for the US and Japan.
Fuel-cell vehicles are usually marketed through leasing arrangements, since the technology is too expensive for most people to buy in an outright purchase.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique