Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that it began operating a hydrogen station for fuel-cell vehicles in California as a step toward mass-producing and marketing its leading-edge, eco-friendly car in 2015.
Unlike other such stations in the United States, the station, set up on the premises of Toyota's U.S. marketing arm with the help of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and other entities, receives hydrogen through a pipeline from a distant location, the automaker said.
Fuel cell vehicles, powered through the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, emit only water while running and are said to be the most promising of next-generation "green" vehicles. But building a viable network of refueling stations presents a major challenge for efforts to popularize such vehicles.