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Toyota Names Upcoming Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-car-by-any-other-name-would-drive-as-clean dept.

An anonymous reader writes Toyota has announced the name of its new hydrogen-powered car: Mirai, which means "future" in Japanese. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said: "Today, we are at a turning point in automotive history. A turning point where a four-door sedan can travel 300 miles on a single tank of hydrogen, can be refueled in under five minutes and emit only water vapor."

6 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. How do I refill it? by CastrTroy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This car is going to have a major problem with most people because there are no stations that carry hydrogen to refill it. It's hard enough for the Tesla to gain traction because you can't refill it in as many places as a standard gasoline powered car, but at least in that case you can charge it every night at home, and it has enough range to last you for the day. You won't be able to generate or store hydrogen at your house. And until there's enough hydrogen stations across the city, it will be very inconvenient to own one of these cars. Even a couple in every city wouldn't be enough because nobody wants to go 20-30 minutes out of their way just to pick up fuel for their car.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    1. Re:How do I refill it? by NMBob · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think he meant that he was uncertain about the name.

    2. Re:How do I refill it? by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, but batteries aren't a cryogenic liquid that embrittles everything it touches. Ooops.

      You think hydrogen stored for use in commercial fuel cell vehicles is stored cryogenically.

      Cute.

      I can see why you didn't log in.

  2. Not For Me by DumbSwede · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Let’s see, my Volkswagen Passat, which I paid 18K, for will go 450 miles and refuel just about anywhere.

    Green is nice and all, but why even bother rolling something out that is obviously not ready for primetime? At least Hybrids can refuel anywhere even if over priced. I’ll go all electric or hybrid once the economics are in place, and I have no problem with early adopters, but getting one of these seems to be for masochists only at this point. Give me a range of 500+ miles, or the ability to fuel at home (maybe natural gas to hydrogen conversion – though that somewhat defeats the purpose).

    Remember, Hydrogen is really just a battery when you think about it, the power still has to come from somewhere else like coal (though ideally wind or solar). In most cases hydrogen is generated from natural gas, generating, you guessed it, carbon dioxide in the process.

    --
    Letter To Iran
    1. Re:Not For Me by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Remember, Hydrogen is really just a battery when you think about it

      How many batteries can be completely recharged in under five minutes?

  3. Re:No, really -they don't say how. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    http://www.nature.com/news/199...

    Furthermore, hydrogen gas is a bitch to store, as it can permeate out through metal. So, not only do you have a the inefficiency of electrolyzing water, you have to do "something" to try to keep it from escaping. Probably substantial compression, but then that has its own set of issues. You can crack hydrogen gas from of natural gas, but that's retarded if you're intending to create a vehicle fuel.

    We should just use hydrocarbons. They are an excellent energy store by every metric I can think of, especially compared to alternative technologies.