Toyota chairman says fuel-cell cars need more time to catch on

Tokyo

TOYOTA Motor Corp chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, known as the "father of the Prius" for his work on the world's bestselling hybrid car, said that fuel-cell vehicles will take longer than petrol-electric cars to become popular because of the need to build infrastructure.

"The hybrid sold much faster than we had anticipated," Mr Uchiyamada, 70, told Bloomberg Television's Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "As for the FCV (cars), we assume it won't be as fast as the hybrid as the infrastructure needs to be prepared before it becomes major in the market."