Toyota's production fuel cell car to cost between $50-100k

While the cost of building a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle continues to go down over time, reports over the last few years have steadily maintained that the first Toyota hydrogen-powered vehicles for customers should ring up for around $50,000. Company officials cited this figure way back in 2010, and have reiterated it in subsequent years.

So, while a recent Automotive News report about the cost of Toyota's 2015 Hydrogen car doesn't offer up any new figures, it does offer an interesting pricing wrinkle. According to the report, the "cost factor" for the hydrogen vehicles will be in the $50k ballpark, meaning the retail price could be anywhere from there, up to as much as around $100,000.

While certainly not inexpensive, being able to produce a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for fifty large is a pretty massive improvement over the prototype cost of a few years ago, when the sticker was about $1 million a pop. While these very expensive prototypes are based on previous-generation Highlanders (pictured above), we're told to expect that the final product will be a lot more in line with the Prius, as far as size and shape.

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Lexus ES350 confirmed for Kentucky production starting in 2015

Following Thursday's report, Toyota has confirmed that production of the Lexus ES will move to its Georgetown, KY assembly plant starting in 2015. To accommodate the extra 50,000 units of capacity that the ES represents, Toyota will be investing $360 million in the plant and hiring 750 new workers.

In the previous report, sources stated that the state of Kentucky had offered Toyota as much as $146.5 million to move ES production to the Georgetown facility.

The press release, posted below, specifies that only the ES350 will be built in Kentucky, so it's likely that the ES300h hybrid will continue to be built in Japan – where all ES models have been built since the car was introduced in 1989. Toyota's Georgetown plant, which currently builds the Toyota Camry, will also be getting an expansion to its engine plant to produce more four-cylinder engines at a cost of $30 million and will create an additional 80 jobs.



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2013 Toyota Etios Liva Sportivo in India first drive

The Toyota Liva TRD Sportivo is a 'Sports' edition with a difference. Instead of the normal sticker job and bumper kits that we’re used to getting nowadays Toyota have gone a step ahead. They’ve simply dropped in the bigger, more powerful engine from the Etios. However the car also benefits from the interior refresh Toyota has recently given the Etios/Liva range.

After unceasing negative feedback from the media and customers, Toyota have finally given the interiors of the Liva a refresh. At first the interiors look largely the same with the same materials and layout but the colour selection has been improved. The cheap looking light grey has been replaced with smarter looking darker colours and the new 2-DIN music system really helps the perceived sense of design and style. The aircon controls have been replaced with better feeling knobs and the red gear knob has been replaced with a nicer looking grey unit. The thin seats with a fixed headrest that got a lot of flak for appearing like a cost cutting measure (they actually worked fine in reality and liberated just a little bit more knee room at the back)have been swapped with new ones that feel more comfortable and you now get adjustability in both the front and rear headrests. However tall drivers will find the seating position too high, even on the lowest setting on the new height adjustable seats.

The engine is the exact same unit from the Etios so you get 90PS, nice bottom end torque along with a revy nature and a nice sounding exhaust note. The Liva Sportivo weighs just 20kg less than the top end Etios so performance is very similar. We managed to get a 0-100kmph time of 12.2 seconds, about .3 faster that the Etios. Efficiency will be similar to the Etios’ 14.5kmpl. The suspension and brakes however are untouched which means you have a capable but not very exciting car that grips around corners but with considerable body roll. Overall it is zippy and quick to drive but still competent in terms of handling and not very exciting.

The Liva TRD Sportivo will cost you Rs 7.3lakhs on-road Mumbai and the price hike is because it falls out of the small car excise bracket thanks to the larger engine.

By Team Overdrive
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