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What It Was Like Living With Hydrogen for a Year: Toyota Mirai FCEV Yearlong Review Verdict

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#1 ·
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

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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.
 
#2 ·
Considerably better looking than the first gen! I don't know whose idea it was to make it as ugly as possible, but even worse that Toyota management agreed to it.

Interesting to read that the fueling process is improving. Though I do wonder how even the improved tech would work in a cold climate, say Michigan in the middle of the winter. If the pump freezes, will it ever unfreeze when it is -10 degrees outside? I know minus 10 degrees is still "warm" in regard to the temperature the hydrogen is at, but how fast will a clog unfreeze being 100 degrees cooler than California temps?
 
#3 ·
I always felt that hydrogen made more sense as a long term proposition, considering the limited state of battery technology. Hydrogen also appeals to those that prefer fueling a vehicle over plugging it in and waiting forever for it to recharge.

It's unfortunate there are not more hydrogen refueling stations. I think that would be an easier fix than adding battery chargers nationwide. With hydrogen all you need is storage and a dispenser. Charging systems require much more costly infrastructure.

We all know of the problems of waste used tires, now we can add dead/depleted battery packs to the disposal problem.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I always felt that hydrogen made more sense as a long term proposition, considering the limited state of battery technology. Hydrogen also appeals to those that prefer fueling a vehicle over plugging it in and waiting forever for it to recharge.

It's unfortunate there are not more hydrogen refueling stations. I think that would be an easier fix than adding battery chargers nationwide. With hydrogen all you need is storage and a dispenser. Charging systems require much more costly infrastructure.

We all know of the problems of waste used tires, now we can add dead/depleted battery packs to the disposal problem.
Me too, I see industrial, trains and trucking first to start building out the infrastructure. Even if they started that now it would probably be a good 20+ years until hydrogen passenger cars can be seriously thought about. Or, with the rapid pace of battery tech improvement it may never be practical to have hydrogen vehicles for 95% percent of us.

edit: I realized I misread your comment. I don't think there would be much of a reason to transition to batteries and then transition to hydrogen 20+ years from now. I'm assuming 2nd gen battery tech (already on sale in China) will solve for a lot of the battery shortcomings we have today. And battery chemistry will only keep improving. If I'm right, there will be little to no incentive to switch to hydrogen for passenger vehicles and the costly infrastructure required. I think hydrogen's niche will be very useful for trucking, industrial, etc.. Plus, I don't know if there will be a better way to carry around hydrogen - they did say this Mirai's interior is small as the hydrogen tanks eat up a lot of passenger room.
 
#6 ·
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I think the current-gen Mirai looks quite handsome. Being RWD, its proportions are much more inline with its $50k-70k price tag compared to the abominable FWD first-gen.

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I actually see the new ones frequently, even several per day. Probably because there is a hydrogen station about 5 minutes from my house and half a dozen within roughly a 30 minute drive.
 
#7 · (Edited)
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I think the current-gen Mirai looks quite handsome. Being RWD, its proportions are much more inline with its $50k-70k price tag compared to the abominable FWD first-gen.

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I actually see the new ones frequently, even several per day. Probably because there is a hydrogen station about 5 minutes from my house and half a dozen within roughly a 30 minute drive.
Second generation looks much cleaner and more purposeful. The first one was too busy and had too many conflicting angles.

Going RWD is always an improvement.

Toyota also picks up the fuel bill up to $15,000 or 6 years, whichever comes first on a purchase, $15,000 or 3 years on a lease.

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#10 ·
Hydrogen fuel cell cars are just inefficient EV's

You use Electricity to make Hydrogen , store it , ship it and then charge huge prices for users to put hydrogen in a smaller tank and then make electricity again to power an electric motor to drive the wheels

Makes zero sense and you use more energy to cover a shorter distance than a pure EV

It's no wonder most manufacturers have given up on the idea
 
#12 ·
Hydrogen fueled combustion engine development has really started to gain traction. If it does that’ll be what kick starts the infrastructure expansion of Hydrogen in the US for sure. I still say it’ll be what replaces diesel in the long run.