Toyota announced at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas that it will open patents on hydrogen fuel cell technology. The announcement was made right after they have showcased their Mirai hydrogen-driven car.
This appears to be the same with the electric car maker Tesla's move back in 2014, wherein Tesla's CEO Elon Musk made their patents available to the public in hopes to spin innovation within the electric vehicle industry.
To be able to speed up the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Toyota offered almost 6,000 of patents on the same type of technology to rival auto makers for free.
Nevertheless, the Japanese automobile giant's objective is of same principle for the benefit of the fuel cell car market.
Bob Carter, Senior Vice President of Toyota, mentioned that when good ideas are shared, then great things happen.
Toyota will be making 5,680 patents available to car makers for them to build and sell their own fuel cell automobiles. Energy companies, bus makers, and spare parts suppliers are also free to use the patents which will be royalty free up until the year 2020.
The company's 70 patents are related to hydrogen fuelling stations which could make a swift implementation of the hydrogen electric vehicles.
Toyota's Mirai hydrogen driven-car is forecasted to hit the US market this coming October 2015. The said vehicle is already out in the market in Japan and is selling for $60,000. It was said to have the ability to re-fuel in about five minutes in a hydrogen station with a range of 300 miles.
Other car makers like Honda and General Motors have also partnered together on the new fuel-cell applications. Honda is to release its own hydrogen fuel car next year, 2016.