Hi Scotty. I would like to know your opinion on the Toyota Mirai and Toyota's H2 Internal Combustion Engine.
- Steve, from Ontario Canada.
I’m curious to hear Scotty’s thoughts on this.
My personal thoughts: IMHO, I think Toyota’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology is pretty amazing. It’s basically an EV, but instead of storing energy in a battery, it stores it in a form of Hydrogen. This makes fueling faster than EV charging, but also a bit longer range than an EV, at this point in time.
With that said the biggest drawback of hydrogen fuel cell technology is the refueling infrastructure. If you live in an area where refueling is available, and you don’t travel too far out of that area, it is a worthwhile option.
However, if you don’t have any hydrogen stations available, it is a pointless vehicle.
With that said, Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle seems fairly robust. Robust enough, that BMW is even using this technology in an upcoming X5 hydrogen. (My guess is that this was the “trade” for the BMW Supra. Toyota gets a sports car, BMW gets access to hydrogen tech.)
As far as the Toyota hydrogen ICE, I am not too familiar with that.
Well unless if you're gonna to be a guinea pig for that cuz those are hydrogen cars which they're extremely complex to work on, almost nobody wants to fix these cars, and extremely high cost of repair (even more than a EV) when they get older. There's no reason to buy these cars.
Sounds like so far Hydrogen is just a pet project for the government to sink tax dollar into and fodder to fuel election campaigns. Companies won't touch it unless there's government subsidies, because it's losing proposition. "Marketing fluff"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dra4Ma68C5o
Well unless you live near a hydrogen station, it's not even an option.
They've still got a long ways to go infrastructure-wise. Development is many years behind BEV's still.
There's plenty of discussion already in the forum if you search 'Mirai'
One more drawback of a Mirai or any hydrogen car really. The hydrogen tanks have an expiration date. You’re not supposed to use the tank after it expires. I think it’s like 8-10 years. It’s written the fill-up cover or in that vicinity, IIRC.
I’m curious to hear Scotty’s thoughts on this.
then watch the videos
https://www.youtube.com/@scottykilmer/search?query=mirai