Charged Up About Fuel Cell Vehicles in China, Toyota Forms New Joint Venture

While it's not a road that many automakers have traveled far down, Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) is driving ahead in the development of fuel cell vehicles. The company announced today that it has signed an agreement with five other companies to form a joint venture called United Fuel Cell System R&D (FCRD). Collectively, the six companies will leverage their prowess to develop fuel cell solutions for commercial vehicles in China, where the government is targeting 20% of vehicle sales to be new energy vehicles, including fuel cell vehicles, by 2025.

Toyota will hold a 65% equity stake in the joint venture, which represents a total investment value of approximately 5 billion yen, or $46 million. According to Toyota, the joint venture will "engage in discussions to formulate product plans and create a single streamlined structure to develop a series of technologies from components including FC [fuel cell] stacks that satisfy performance needs in China and FC system controls that support those components, to vehicle installation."

Image source: Getty Images.

Source Fool.com