What It Was Like Living With Hydrogen for a Year: Toyota Mirai FCEV Yearlong Review Verdict (msn.com)
Story by Aaron Gold,Brandon Lim
May 17, 2024
A (second) year on the Hydrogen Highway with Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell car shows there are still bumps in the road.
With so many battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) hitting the market, we wanted to check in with the newest hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), cars that use a hydrogen fuel stack instead of a battery to produce electricity. Have the cars and the infrastructure improved in the five years since we last ran a long-term FCEV? We arranged to spend a year with the freshly redesigned 2021 Toyota Mirai to find out.
2021 Toyota Mirai: An EV Without the Tether?
I was chosen as the Mirai's custodian because I fit Toyota's customer profile: someone who wants an EV but can't install a charger at home (I live in a listed-landmark apartment complex). Toyota pitches the Mirai as an electric car that is fueled rather than charged, just like a gasoline car and nearly as quickly. I chose a Mirai XLE in Supersonic Red (sadly, the bright Hydro Blue paint is only available on the Limited) and started driving.
Our Mirai clocked up just 13,882 miles during its year with us. Why so few? First, the nation's hydrogen infrastructure is still very small. The vast majority (53) of America's 54 hydrogen stations are in California (the 54th is in Hawaii), and most are clustered around California's most populous regions. With few stations between or beyond, the Mirai is more of a homebody than a long-distance traveler (though I did take it on a road trip). Second, I was still working from home. And third, given the unreliability of the fueling network—more on which shortly—a lot of staffers were understandably reluctant to trust their transportation prospects to hydrogen. So most of the year it was just me and my Mirai, which suited me just fine—I loved the car.
Story continues at LINK.
Story by Aaron Gold,Brandon Lim
May 17, 2024
A (second) year on the Hydrogen Highway with Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell car shows there are still bumps in the road.
With so many battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) hitting the market, we wanted to check in with the newest hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), cars that use a hydrogen fuel stack instead of a battery to produce electricity. Have the cars and the infrastructure improved in the five years since we last ran a long-term FCEV? We arranged to spend a year with the freshly redesigned 2021 Toyota Mirai to find out.
2021 Toyota Mirai: An EV Without the Tether?
I was chosen as the Mirai's custodian because I fit Toyota's customer profile: someone who wants an EV but can't install a charger at home (I live in a listed-landmark apartment complex). Toyota pitches the Mirai as an electric car that is fueled rather than charged, just like a gasoline car and nearly as quickly. I chose a Mirai XLE in Supersonic Red (sadly, the bright Hydro Blue paint is only available on the Limited) and started driving.
Our Mirai clocked up just 13,882 miles during its year with us. Why so few? First, the nation's hydrogen infrastructure is still very small. The vast majority (53) of America's 54 hydrogen stations are in California (the 54th is in Hawaii), and most are clustered around California's most populous regions. With few stations between or beyond, the Mirai is more of a homebody than a long-distance traveler (though I did take it on a road trip). Second, I was still working from home. And third, given the unreliability of the fueling network—more on which shortly—a lot of staffers were understandably reluctant to trust their transportation prospects to hydrogen. So most of the year it was just me and my Mirai, which suited me just fine—I loved the car.
Story continues at LINK.