The world's largest auto maker announced Tuesday it would begin selling fuel cell cars in Japan on December 15 and in the US and Europe in the middle of next year.

Toyota said its sporty-looking, four-door Mirai would retail for 6.7 million yen ($57,600, 64,180 euros) before taxes, making the vehicle unaffordable for many.

The carmaker added that it hoped to shift 400 units in Japan and 300 in the rest of the world in the first year after its launch.

Decades away from mass sales

"In time, the fuel cell vehicle will become mainstream; we wanted to take the first step," senior Toyota executive Mitsuhisa Kato said in a statement. "We want to be at the leading edge."

Fuel cell cars run on compressed hydrogen gas. They emit no exhaust fumes, but fossil fuels are used in the production of hydrogen and its compression.

Besides being costly at present, buyers will find it hard to find fuel, with only a few dozen hydrogen filling stations worldwide.

Toyota engineer Yoshikazu Tanaka assumed it would take 10 to 20 years for the Mirai to reach sales in the tens of thousands of vehicles annually.

hg/nz (Reuters, AP, dpa)