G8 summiteers get a glimpse of green car fleet

By Dan Sloan

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - G8 leaders in Japan are aiming for a green summit, and Japanese automakers are providing the wheels to ride that eco-road.

A fleet of electric plug-ins, hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars awaited those attending this week's summit for use or test drives, supplied by Japan's top seven carmakers.

Toyota is showcasing its FCHV-adv, which uses a nickel-metal hydride battery and runs 830 km (516 miles) on a full hydrogen tank, and provided more than 70 hybrid cars and hydrogen-fuelled buses for the use of summit participants.

Many fuel cell cars are still prototypes available only for lease, but commercial sales of some other summit autos, like Mitsubishi's pure electric i-MiEV or Subaru's plug-in Stella, are coming as soon as 2009.

Mitsubishi has 10 of the rechargeable minicars at the summit, and touts that plug-in costs can be as low as one-ninth that of petroleum fill-ups, depending on the time of day.

"The car's popularity will centre on not using gas, the CO2 emission problem and concerns about energy security," said Kazunori Handa, engineer in Mitsubishi's MiEV department.

He was referring to concerns about the rising amount of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming, that is being pumped into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.

Mazda's hydrogen gas-fuel hybrid RX8 is already being leased for about 420,000 yen (1,966 pounds) a month, mainly to local Japan governments or corporate clients.