The culmination of decades of research and development, Toyota’s first mass-production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Toyota Mirai, will start deliveries next month in Japan.
Far from being a hydrogen fuel cell conversion vehicle, the Toyota Mirai was built from the ground up as a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Twin 70 MPa hydrogen fuel tanks are mounted fore and aft of the rear axle, with the hybrid battery pack perched above. The compact hydrogen fuel cell stack is mounted under the cabin, improving vehicle stability. A 100 kW electric motor-generator is mounted on the front axle.
Like the Toyota Prius Plug-In, the Toyota Mirai charges via electric vehicle charging station, and refueling takes as little as three minutes except, not with fossil fuels, with pure hydrogen gas. With a full charge and full hydrogen fuel tanks, the Toyota Mirai has a range of about 300 miles, over 400 miles on the JC08 drive cycle.
Just how groundbreaking is the Toyota Mirai? Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda, who introduces the high-tech hybrid in the video that follows, says the car represents a turning point in automobile history…
In Japanese, “mirai” means “the future,” which perfectly describes what the Toyota Mirai means for Toyota and the rest of the world. The Mirai is versatile, holding up to four passengers, fun-to-drive, if President Toyoda’s facial expressions translate properly at 1:24 in the video, and it generates zero tailpipe emissions, only water vapor. The car will start deliveries in December, in Japan, followed by European and North American deliveries, Spring and Summer 2015, respectively.
Just might be, if they’ve placed all the egg’s into one basket.
Just might be, if they placed all there eggs into one basket.