Toyota Mark X Zio Hydrogen Mason City IA

There are some spy shots that have been floating around recently about the Toyota Mark X Zio Hydrogen making its serendipitous U. S. debut in California. The Toyota Mark X Zio Hydrogen was playing a game of “I Spy” in Death Valley recently when these photos were taken apparently doing hot weather testing of its fuel cell.

The Toyota Mark X Zio gasoline-powered vehicle has been on sale in Japan for a year now as a right hand drive model and none so far have made it over to U. S. soil. The Toyota Mark X Zio Hydrogen that was spied is a left-hand drive model and has a bit of a banged up rear end as one might expect from an early prototype.

The non-fuel cell Mark X Zio is what Toyota calls its “4+free” model, which can seat from 4 to 7 passengers in a highly configurable interior. The vehicle can quickly be changed into a minivan, station wagon or sedan according to driver and passenger needs.

The only other fuel cell vehicle that the Japanese carmaker has been showing off recently is the Toyota FCHV. This vehicle was shown to have a range of over 500 miles in recent testing, blowing away the 300 mile range marker that may other hydrogen car manufacturers are still trying to achieve.

The Toyota Mark X Zio Hydrogen may signal a move by the carmaker towards higher end, more flexible configurations for its future fuel cell vehicles. With an uncertain market like the car market is now, flexibility will go a long way with future sales to consumers.

For more information, go to Hydrogencarsnow.com.