In the ongoing attempt to describe and promote the unknown, not unlike Plato’s Allegory of the Cave applied to auto companies, Toyota Mirai, a “mass-produced” hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, surpassed 3000 sales in the California.
This means that Mirai makes up more than 80% of all hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the United States. Umm, on ~17 million vehicles annually for the last three years the total number is more discouraging when compared to the total number of vehicles sold – ~3700 out of 50 million. Pretty dark in here.
The Toyota Mirai, a four-door, mid-size sedan, is a zero-emission hydrogen vehicle with an EPA estimated driving range rating of 312 miles and 67 mpge city/highway/combined. Its performance fully competes with traditional internal combustion engines – but uses no gasoline. With a refueling time of approximately five minutes, the Mirai creates electricity using hydrogen, oxygen and a fuel cell, and emits nothing but water vapor in the process.
“Toyota remains at the forefront of developing and deploying hydrogen fuel cell technology, and we believe strongly in its potential to help realize a more sustainable and zero-emissions society,” claimed Bob Carter, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor North America, Inc. “
Toyota is supporting the development of a hydrogen refueling network. Thirty-one retail hydrogen stations are now open for business in California, with an additional twelve stations projected to open in California in 2018. Toyota continues works with FirstElement Fuels and Shell to create a hydrogen infrastructure in California. Toyota is also collaborating with Air Liquide, a producer of industrial gases, to set up a network of 12 hydrogen fueling stations stretching from New York to Boston, with the first station expected to launch in Boston later this year.
In addition, Toyota is building a new Tri-Gen facility at the Port of Long Beach that will use bio-waste from California’s agricultural industry to generate water, electricity and hydrogen. The hydrogen will fuel all Toyota fuel cell vehicles moving through the Port, including new deliveries of the Mirai sedan and Toyota’s Heavy-Duty hydrogen fuel cell class 8 truck, known as Project Portal.
See AutoInformed.com on:
- Fuel Cell Pricing Wars – 2017 Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Mirai
- Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell Range 312 Miles Says EPA
- Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell Car Dealers Announced
- Toyota to Use Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Zero Emission Trucking
- 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell Deliveries Start
