Bosch Says Fuel-Cells Vehicles Will be Viable By 2025

Fuel-cell-powered cars will become commercially viable by 2025, predicts Wolf-Henning Scheider, who heads the automotive division of Robert Bosch GmbH.

But they still won't be cheap. Scheider tells a conference in Berlin that in 10 years fuel-cell cars still will cost about twice as much to build as electric vehicles.

Toyota Motor Corp. will begin offering its Mirai fuel-cell car in Japan and the U.S. next year for about $60,000. Honda Motor Co. plans its own FCV fuel cell car in 2016, and other carmakers intend to test demand with small numbers of their own hydrogen-fueled models.

Analysts point out the selling price of fuel-cell cars won't reflect actual development costs. They also note that hydrogen fueling stations each cost $500,000 or more to install.