- [Michael] I'm MrMobile,
and every time I do a video
on an electric car, someone
in the comments pops up
to say yeah, but the real
future is in hydrogen cars!
Well maybe.
But to drive a hydrogen car,
you need to live near
hydrogen fueling stations.
And the closest one to my home in Boston
is 2,547 miles away.
So when I was in San Francisco last week,
I thought hey why don't I call up Toyota
and ask them to put me behind
the wheel of the Mirai.
The company's fuel cell vehicle
which is named after the
Japanese word for future.
And before I knew it, I was hurdling
down the highway leaving
nothing behind me but water.
Here's a look at how hydrogen cars work,
why they're cool,
and why I think they're
probably not the future.
(upbeat music)
The first thing I was surprised to learn
about hydrogen cars is
that they're electric cars.
The Mirai's wheels are
turned by an electric motor
just like a Tesla or a Bolt EV.
The difference is in how
the power is created.
Where a battery electric
car gets its juice
from a charging station
or a plug in your house.
A hydrogen car, like the Mirai,
generates power using
something called a fuel cell.
The engineering behind this is complicated
but the concept is simple.
See, the cars pulls in
air upfront through,
what in an older car would've
been a radiator grill,
and a filter separates the oxygen.
Which is passed on to the
fuel cells along with hydrogen
from two tanks under the cabin.
The hydrogen does not
burn like gasoline does.
Instead, it's chemically
combined with the oxygen
and that chemical reaction
produces electricity.
The electricity is then
fit into the small battery
and the drive motor to get you moving.
As different as it is under the hood,
driving a fuel cell car
feels much like driving
any other car.
In fact, the Mirai feels like
a slightly sportier version
of the Prius Prime I reviewed last year.
And, I do mean slightly sportier.
When I toggle power mode
I could get accelerations
of zero to 60 in nine seconds.
Hydrogen may be rocket fuel
but the Mirai isn't gonna hit
escape velocity anytime soon.
Of course, it's not built for that.
It's built for grocery runs
and driving your kids
to little league games.
And while this isn't a review video,
my three days with the
car gave me the impression
that it would do that job just fine.
Are your kids safe in a fuel cell car?
That's a good question.
When you're in the Mirai,
you're literally sitting on
top of two tanks of hydrogen
which are pressurized 10,000
pounds per square inch.
It doesn't sound terribly safe
to put those into a 4,000 pound car flying
down the freeway at 55 miles an hour.
But, Toyota has a good
reputation for safety
and the fuel system bears that out.
In a crash, the car's chassis is designed
to redirect impact forces
around the fuel tanks.
The tanks themselves are
carbon fiber reinforced polymer
and they were tested by an outside firm
which filled them to operating pressure.
And then, did things like drop
2 1/2 ton weights on them.
They just bounced off.
The lab was able to penetrate the tank
but it had to shoot it
with a .50 caliber bullet.
In the case of a similar sized breach
in a crash, the hydrogen
would escape over the course
of 15 to 30 seconds.
So yeah, it would be an ignition hazard.
But then, so would gasoline
and gas sticks around a
lot longer than hydrogen.
We don't have a lot of data right now
'cause they're aren't a
lot of these on the road
and, thankfully, even fewer
of them have been in crashes.
But after looking into how
these have built and tested,
I didn't feel any less
safe in a fuel cell car
than in a conventional one.
The best and worst of
hydrogen cars can be found
in the same place.
The fueling station.
On the positive side,
you can top up your hydrogen
tank in a fuel cell car
just as quickly as you
can gas up your old Buick.
I went from 3/4 to full
in under three minutes.
Now that gave me enough
time to press the H20 button
on the dash and dump some
of that nasty dihydrogen
monoxide by product.
For those not in on lame science jokes,
dihydrogen monoxide is water.
That's the only exhaust this car produces.
Hoping back in and
getting back on the road
with a full set of tanks,
I'm good to go again
for about 250 to 300 miles.
The negative?
Remembered how I said the
only place you can get one
of these right now is in California.
Well that small scale means
hydrogen fuel is still quite expensive.
That quarter tank I paid
for cost me about 30 bucks.
Extrapolating that, to fill up from empty
at today's rates, you'd pay over $80.
Toyota does take the sting out of it
by giving you either $15,000 of free fuel
or three years worth of
it; whichever's cheaper.
Plus, you do qualify for a
$5,000 California state rebate
and/or an HOV sticker.
But with an MSRP of over
$58,000 for the Mirai,
you're still shelling out
a ton of money to get a car
that only works in a
small part of the country.
Looking down the road,
it would be exciting
to see a hydrogen fueling
infrastructure develop
across the United States.
These cars would outperform
battery electrics
in very cold climates.
And yes, definitely nice to be able
to refuel in minutes instead of hours.
Other countries that are more
aggressively pursuing
zero emissions targets
will probably order more.
Japan, in particular, is big into FCVs.
Also, using hydrogen as a means
of large scale energy
storage, has some advocates.
So a ways down the road,
hydrogen may indeed be our
collective energy future.
But in the nearer term,
here in the States,
I think we'll continue
to see battery electric cars
maintain their momentum.
They may refill more slowly
but it's a lot easier to
find a charging station
than a hydrogen one.
And in the worse case, with an EV,
you can usually find a
wall plug to plug into.
Also, EVs let you wake up
with a full battery every day
if you charge them in
your garage every night.
That's a lot of easier than
digging out a part of your yard
to accommodate your own personal
hydrogen fueling station.
You get the idea.
(light music)
Still, I am fascinated by the technology
that's driving fuel cell vehicles
and I'd like to hear
your thoughts on them.
Drop a comment below.
Especially if you own one of these things
and be sure you don't miss my coverage
of electric cars from
Tesla, Mercedes, Audi,
and GM among others.
Subscribe to the MrMobile on YouTube.
Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile my friends.
