Ford Motor Co. will use its Focus as the base for its first production fuel cell vehicle that will go on sale by 2004, the company said Monday. The Detroit News. Many automakers, including Ford, General Motors Corp. , DaimlerChrysler, Toyota and Honda have all committed to building small numbers of fuel cell vehicles by 2004.
Fuel cells have several problems that have to be worked out before they're ready for widespread use.
Today's fuel cell prototypes would be far more expensive than regular cars, even in mass production. Kopf said the production Focus FCV will likely be sold mostly for use in business fleets that can install equipment for handling hydrogen. He said reducing the cost of fuel cell power was the biggest technical challenge, one that Ford won't likely solve before 2010.