Toyota wants to build hydrogen-fuelled cars in Melbourne if demand for the new age vehicles picks up once they’re released in 2015.
Toyota Australia president Max Yasuda said Melbourne was an ideal location to build hydrogen fueled cars because of its proximity to the Latrobe Valley’s brown coal reserves.
“One of the strengths of this country, especially in Victoria, is that you have an abundant resource of brown coal. This coal cannot be transported” he said.
Toyota’s plan would involve building a hydrogen-capturing plant in Gippsland, News Limited reports, and the facility could create hundreds of jobs in a region which has one of the state’s worst unemployment rates.
“One of the ways we utilise this coal is to build a plant to produce hydrogen,” Yasuda said.
“So that means we have an abundance of hydrogen energy here in Victoria.”
Toyota’s hydrogen car technology will be rolled out in 2015, and the Australian-branch wants to bring trial cars downunder in the same year.