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Coming to Grips with Hydrogen Fuel Economy - 2016 Toyota Mirai Long-Term Road Test
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Coming to Grips with Hydrogen Fuel Economy - 2016 Toyota Mirai Long-Term Road Test
We've been keeping a close watch on the fuel consumption of our hydrogen-powered 2016 Toyota Mirai, and we've seen high highs and low lows.
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So, if you put it 2.4 kg (like the picture shows) and get 100 miles per 1.8 kg that means that you went about 133 miles, right? So, according to my math it would've cost you $0.30 per mile.
So... at around an average of $2.40 a gallon in LA it would be like getting 8 miles per gallon. Yes, 8 MPG. Or, compare it to say a 40 MPG car (being conservative) and it'd be like paying $12.10 a gallon.
Feel free to correct my assumptions and check my math, but that seems pretty absurd. Oh yeah, "the price will come down" maybe down to as low as $4 a gallon equivalent. Makes lots of sense.
I decided to tackle the range and refueling parts first and separately because 1) these are key issues to the early adopter EV crowd, which is important because 2) hydrogen cars are being pitched to those folks as a more "normal" green car/EV alternative in terms of range and refueling.
But cost is coming next, believe you me. We have recorded every penny we've paid (and continue to do so) so we can delve into that issue. But there is a twist.
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
Spoken so casually, yet there are 29 H2 filling stations in the entire country:
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/stations/results?utf8=✓&location=&fuel=HY&private=false&planned=false&owner=all&payment=all&radius=false&radius_miles=5
I don't fault you for living where you do, but it's a bit of a bubble when it comes to dealing with the realities of the rest of the Continent.
A Prius averaging 47.6 MPG, so at $2.40/g that is $0.05/mile.
I still think that hydrogen cars like the Mirai should be the car of the future rather than plug in electric. But from a cost/mile perspective it makes zero sense at this time.
Electric is clearly the future and that will tie in perfectly to self driving as soon they will be fleets of automated taxis taking you to and from work and everywhere you need to go.
I thought the fuel was completely covered by Toyota. Is it not?
Our car lives in the southern bubble, and the number of stations is manageable based on where they are and the number of cars currently trying to use them.
It's worth noting that Tesla's supercharger network only consisted of 6 similarly-located stations in California when we first gout ours in early 2013. As I recall we marveled at being able to drive all the way to Lake Tahoe! But look at them now!
Hydrogen will not roll out that fast, of course. Electricity is already everywhere, so something like a Supercharger station is a matter of finding a host and building a station. Hydrogen infrastructure is a long ways behind. They're currently trucking it to stations. (Come to think of it, that's how gasoline stations are supplied). It's mostly a matter of making the stuff cheaply and cleanly from a well-to-wheels standpoint, and that's still a major sticking point.
Toyota's move is a long-range plan realizing that this chicken-egg problem needs cars on the road to get the ball well and truly rolling to answer questions like: Can the vehicles do the job? and; Do they satisfy customers? If people like the cars, then people will figure out ways to improve the hydrogen part. But everyone involved is thinking decades ahead here. They're talking about the NEXT hundred years of the automobile. Time will tell if this fuel has legs but, as they say, you've first gotta walk...
Twitter: @Edmunds_Test
The process for obtaining the hydrogen will probably never be cheap due to the purification, certifications, and HazMat issues (it is a rolling tank of hydrogen after all), and the fact most processes to obtain the hydrogen (and purify) need a LOT of electricity.
... starting to think if someone did a breakdown on the actual "green" score it would fall closer to the bottom of the list below hybrid or even diesel. On the plus side, at least it doesn't need heavy metal laden hybrid batteries... oh, wait... the "stack" looks to be hybrid batteries.