Perhaps the reason why Toyota's new fuel cell sedan looks so unattractive is because its engineers spent so long on the propulsion unit - at a guess, the ratio of attention was probably around 99:1.
But the fact that this revolutionary hydrogen fuel cell car won't win any beauty pageants is immaterial. It is a genuine alternative to petrol/diesel – and to electric and electric-hybrid.
Pure electric and hybrids featuring electric propulsion for low speeds have dominated the journey away from costly, environmentally damaging combustion units – but hydrogen has been conspicuously absent from motoring press headlines.
But that could be about to change. The new Toyota will be the first ever production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on the British market when it launches next year.
Its home nation of Japan will be the first launch market, followed by North America and Europe two months later. It is set to retail in the UK for around £40,000; a similar figure will be asked of Japanese buyers.
No specs have been released by Toyota – and there are still many questions over how buyers will be able to refuel their cells. Equally, reliability is also a big mystery – so vehicle recovery insurance will be a must.
Hyundai, the Korean firm said to be even further ahead in hydrogen development than Toyota, expects there to be 13 hydrogen refuel stations across Britain by next year.
That compares to around 8,500 petrol/diesel stations.
Certainly, it seems that early adopters will not find it easy to refuel their hydrogen cells.
Perhaps Toyota should take the approach of electric car firm Tesla, which aims to build a network of charge points across Europe by next year?
Breakdown Cover from 
