Toyota Motor Corp. delivered its fuel-cell-powered vehicles Friday to the governments of Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya, the first local authorities to lease the company's fuel-cell cars.
Toyota also delivered fuel-cell cars to its first corporate clients, including Tokyo Gas Co., Nippon Oil Corp., and Toho Gas Co. the same day.
Toyota only leases fuel-cell cars at present. It charges a monthly rate of 1.2 million yen per vehicle.
Aichi Gov. Masaaki Kanda and Toyota Vice Chairman Iwao Isomura were among those attending a delivery ceremony at the prefectural office Friday morning.
Fuel-cell cars are powered by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen and are considered the ultimate clean-energy cars; the cells emit only water.
Aichi officials plan use their fuel-cell car to publicize its environmental appeal.
Toyota was three months behind schedule in delivering the vehicles to Aichi and Nagoya due to a leakage of hydrogen in the fuel system.
The problem was detected in May, and Toyota engineers spent the past three months fixing the problem and performing safety checks.
