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Toyota Aims to Decrease Emissions by 90% by 2050

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Yep, you read that right. Toyota wants to almost completely eliminate emissions from its vehicles by 2050. Sounds impossible, right? Well, maybe, but maybe not.

hydrogen refueling infrastructure

The 2016 Toyota Mirai

This might seem like a lofty goal, but Toyota is definitely on the right track with the release of its new Mirai fuel-cell vehicle, which has zero emissions. The Japanese automaker originally planned to sell around 3,000 Mirais by the end of 2017, but demand for the sedan has been higher than expected, so it’s possible that might be a conservative estimate. Toyota projects that it’ll sell a total of 30,000 vehicles by 2020, suggesting a sharp rise in popularity in a short amount of time.

2016 Toyota Prius (17)

The 2016 Toyota Prius

Additionally, Toyota wants to sell a total of 15 million hybrids by 2020. The automaker hit 8 million hybrids sold back in August of this year, which gives it a goal of 7 million hybrid sales in less than five years. With the 2016 release of the next-gen Prius, that goal isn’t too unrealistic—the hybrid has a new, sportier look that should appeal to a broader range of drivers, as well as a 10% increase in fuel efficiency thanks to a whole bunch of new technologies.

Toyota is one of the only automakers to concentrate on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles rather than electric vehicles. A lack of infrastructure is the main issue facing these vehicles—it’s easy enough to plug your EV in at home, but finding a hydrogen refueling station in the US is much trickier. In fact, California is the only state to currently have any such infrastructure, and so the Mirai is only available in the Golden State for now.

A goal to almost eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in the next 35 years might seem unlikely, but if anyone can do it, it’s Toyota.

News Source: BBC News