AKIPRESS.COM - Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) will start selling its Mirai fuel-cell vehicle for 7.24 million yen ($63,000), which Japan will subsidize with the aim of repeating a bet that paid off with the world’s most popular hybrid, reports Bloomberg.

Early buyers of Mirai, which runs on hydrogen and emits only water vapor, will be entitled to about 3 million yen in subsidies in some areas, government officials have said. The support mirrors the inducements Japan has offered to purchasers of hybrids including the Prius, sold since 1997. Toyota and Japan have since dominated global hybrid sales and production.

“Hydrogen can encourage new industrial development that can have the impact of changing our society’s structure, creating new jobs and improving our global competitiveness,” Mitsuhisa Kato, a Toyota executive vice president, said today in Tokyo.

Toyota is receiving government support to popularize what it sees as the next generation of auto technology, just as it has while beating carmakers including General Motors Co. (GM) and Daimler AG in the market for cars running on gasoline and electricity. Prius and other Japan-made models have been eligible for domestic tax breaks and incentives that helped companies achieve scale and lower costs, paving the way for Toyota to sell 7 million hybrids cumulatively as of September.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for forming a “hydrogen society” in Japan after the nation’s 2011 nuclear disaster led to surging oil imports and record trade deficits. The energy predicament for the world’s third-largest economy, which has slumped into its fourth recession since 2008, adds to Japan’s motives for supporting hydrogen-powered cars.