Toyota's Hydrogen Powered Mirai - Are Fuel Cells the Future?

Tesla has been dominating headlines this year, but for a brief moment, Toyota took the non-renewable headline spotlight. Watch More - http://bit.ly/1sgmU1O Toyota's new Mirai means future in Japanese. But are Hydrogen cars really the future? Transcript _____________ Battery and Hydrogen Powered Vehicles Hi guys, it’s Rylan, 4wheelonline, with this week’s News Refresh! Tesla has been dominating headlines for the past year, but now, Toyota’s new, hydrogen powered car has been stealing the spotlight! Are hydrogen cars really the future? Let’s find out! (4WheelOnline intro) Toyota’s new Mirai isn’t a futuristic concept car. It’s a full on production car that will be sold and leased in California next year for $57,000. And Toyota is just one player in a massive push with Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen to bring hydrogen cars to market. In fact, the state of California has pledged 200 MILLION dollars to the construction of 100 new hydrogen fueling stations. And Toyota is paying for your fillups at those stations for the first 3 years, after that you’re on the hook. Toyota and California taxpayers are clearly excited enough about hydrogen powered vehicles to put a lot of money into backing it. However, when we compare fuel-cell cars to the rest of the automotive market, our enthusiasm begins to lose power. The Miara claims a competitive range of 300 miles, that’s 200 miles more than your average electric vehicle, and 35 more than the Tesla Model S. And for $57,000, it’s significantly cheaper than the $82,000 265 mile battery Model S too. But that’s where the advantages seem to stop. For almost $60,000 you aren’t getting a luxury or sports car like the Tesla, you are getting a 153 horsepower Toyota. Cost of refuel is also an issue for hydrogen technology too. For 60,000 dollars you’d expect the cost of refilling the car to be negligible right? Afterall, it’s just hydrogen! Well, Toyota is actually expecting that filling up your tank will cost an estimated $1500 annually. That’s equal to about $50 per fill up! 50 dollars for 300 miles?! You’d pay less than half that with Toyota’s own gas-powered Prius! Filling up your electric Model S on the other hand is always free at a Tesla station! And many electric charging stations offer free or a fraction of that cost! Despite hydrogen’s abundance, the production of it still isn’t necessarily cheap - or green! In fact, 95% of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, not water! Unfortunately, electrolysis of water remains uncompetitive with hydrogen production by way of coal or natural gas, as electrolysis requires large amounts of energy - or electricity. So in a sense, you are using electricity to produce hydrogen to produce electricity. Finally, for the price of the 100 hydrogen stations California is building, you could construct 10,000 Supercharger stations, or a MILLION standard charging stations. In the end, hydrogen powered cars are far from being competitive with battery powered or even fuel-efficient gas powered vehicles. But what do you guys think about the future of hydrogen? Will it eventually be able to compete with gas or battery powered cars? Or is Toyota just on a fool’s errand with their new hydrogen powered car? Let us know in the comments below so we can keep this discussion going. That’s the latest automotive news for this week, but be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with the latest stories and don’t forget to roll on over to 4wheelonline for all your Black Friday savings! I’m Rylan, and you’ve been refreshed! http://4wheelonline.com/