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Toyota Opens Up Hydrogen Fuel Cell Patents To Accelerate Development

Toyota wants hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be viable as soon as possible, and to facilitate the acceleration of the technology the company has released all of its patents to anyone who wants to use them.

Toyota will sell 700 copies of the hydrogen powered Mirai during 2015, starting at $57,400. The 2015 Mirai will have 153-horsepower and 247 lb-ft of torque, which will give it a 0-60 time of 9 seconds. The Mirai’s hydrogen tank will give it a 300 mile range and will fill in three to five minutes.

Toyota isn’t offering carte blanche on their patents. The patents related to fuel cell vehicles will be royalty free until the “initial market introduction period” ends in 2020. The patents on fuel cell infrastructure, on the other hand, will remain open to anyone indefinitely. Toyota has over 5,600 patents, 3,350 related to fuel cell system, 1,970 related to fuel cell stacks, 290 related to high pressure hydrogen tanks, and 70 related to hydrogen production and supply, according to The Truth About Cars.

Tesla opened up their patents to anyone who wanted to build EVs last year, hoping to push more companies into that market.