Toyota is employing a novel strategy in Japan to lower vehicle emissions.
According to NPR, the manufacturer is producing a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car that the business is dubbing the Mirai instead of concentrating on plug-in electric vehicles, and with $20,000 worth of government subsidies, it costs merely $50,000. That costs a little bit more than a regular car, but much less than hydrogen fuel cells once did.
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What will the price of the 2021 Mirai be?
The 2021 Toyota Mirai’s Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is $50,525 for the XLE base trim with destination charge and common extras. As you select additional features or add choices, prices will rise.
What is the price of a gallon of hydrogen fuel?
Although hydrogen fuel is four times more expensive than gasoline and about $16 per gallon, it is far more efficient than gasoline. The cost of a fillup is high even though hydrogen cars, which have electric engines, have cruising ranges that are more than 350 miles longer than any battery-electric and some gas-powered vehicles.
The financial blow has been considerably mitigated by incentives. The state offers a $4,500 clean-car refund, and manufacturers supply refueling cards with three years’ worth of credit put on them. The first year of leasing a hydrogen vehicle, which is what most drivers do instead of buying, is mostly covered by that refund. New hydrogen vehicles cost around $60,000 and don’t come in as many model variants as battery-powered electric vehicles.
Aaron Slavin and his wife, who reside in the Altadena, California, neighborhood of Los Angeles, created a spreadsheet to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of driving a hydrogen-fueled vehicle. They came to the conclusion that keeping a gas-electric hybrid “didn’t pencil out.”
Aaron Slavin refueled his 2017 Toyota Mirai at a one-bay hydrogen pump concealed at a typical gas station in South Pasadena and declared, “I’m a big fan of this car; I preach about them.
Slavin, a producer of performing arts, claimed that because of his employment, lack of frequent commuting, and backup hybrid SUV, he is an ideal fit for the vehicle.
Last year, a fuel manufacturing facility explosion restricted supply for months, leaving some hydrogen stations with empty tanks, leaving some drivers stranded or demanding lengthy treks to alternate stations, making the second car essential. Slavin turned to a smartphone app that offered a real-time inventory of fuel at each station in response to the issue, which some drivers dubbed the “hydropocalypse.”
Although the gasoline issue has been fixed, it prompted a concern. Our lease expires in April, so I really need to consider our options, Slavin added. ” The automobile is nice, however the fuel situation worries me.
Hydrogen energy production has long been an alluring objective. After all, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, it is lightweight and energy-dense, and when used in transportation, it doesn’t release greenhouse gases but rather little pools of water instead.
But this clean-burning fuel has a carbon history. About 95% of hydrogen fuel is created via an energy-intensive method that relies on methane, the deadliest of the planet-warming gases, even though once it is formed it drives zero-emission electric motors. Because of this, it is challenging for certain environmental organizations to promote hydrogen vehicles.
Director of the Sierra Club in California Kathryn Phillips said, “We need to remove methane out of the system, not create a dependency on creating more. ” The current utilization of state subsidies for hydrogen fuel cells is not the ideal one when seen from an environmental perspective.
Two responses are given by supporters: Why not trap and use the methane that is currently being released unregulated into the environment from landfills and oil and gas plants while the state makes the transition to a zero-carbon economy? Why not switch to a technique that doesn’t use methane and uses the state’s excess solar energy instead, making the manufacturing clean and environmentally friendly?
Hydrogen vehicles can’t compete in a key area: price, while having benefits over battery electrics or gasoline automobiles in terms of quicker filling, less weight, and greater range. The cost of a typical municipal bus could be $450,000. Similar standards for a hydrogen bus cost more like $1 million.
Lewis Fulton, a specialist in transportation at UC Davis, claims that hydrogen “presents numerous separate chicken-and-egg challenges simultaneously.
He asserted that there won’t be more hydrogen fuelling stations until there are more vehicles built and bought. Furthermore, unless there are sufficient gas stations, customers might be concerned about getting stranded and may not feel safe operating the vehicles.
The only solution, according to Fulton, is a really strong policy push. “In the state, there is already one going on, but I’m not sure if it’s big enough.
As part of its ongoing conflict with the Trump administration, which last year took away the state’s jurisdiction to establish its own tailpipe pollution rules, California’s efforts to promote the market for hydrogen cars could be hindered. Car manufacturers who supported looser emissions regulations with the federal government will pay a price by having their vehicles removed from the state’s fleet.
Toyota, which sided with Washington, would be excluded at a time when the business is stepping up its hydrogen program and is anticipated to dramatically increase customer awareness of hydrogen vehicles due to its position as a major multinational automaker.
Supporters played minimized the problem. Eckerle acknowledged that there was an issue. He continued, however, that there has been no sign from automakers that they plan to back out of their commitment to producing hydrogen-powered vehicles.
How much hydrogen is there in the Toyota Mirai?
Some automobiles are pricey to buy, while others are pricey to own. The average price of hydrogen fuel is $16 per kilogram, thus filling up a Toyota Mirai might be rather expensive. Since the Mirai typically holds 5 pounds, your cost would be about $80.
It should be mentioned, nevertheless, that hydrogen fuel is significantly more effective than gasoline. On the interstate, a Mirai can do 71 miles per kilo, and 76 in the city.
Is hydrogen less expensive than gas?
The majority of hydrogen utilized in the United States is generated on-site or nearby, often at sizable industrial facilities. It is still necessary to build the infrastructure for supplying hydrogen to the vast national network of fuelling stations needed for the widespread deployment of fuel cell electric vehicles. Building out these distribution networks is the primary objective of the initial rollout for vehicles and stations, which is predominantly done in southern and northern California.
Currently, there are three ways to deliver hydrogen:
Pipeline: This method is the least expensive for delivering large amounts of hydrogen, but it has a limited capacity due to the fact that there are only 1,600 miles of hydrogen transport pipes in the United States at the moment. These pipelines are situated close to significant chemical and petroleum refineries in Illinois, California, and the Gulf Coast.
High-Pressure Tube Trailers: High-Pressure Tube Trailers are expensive and are often used for transporting compressed hydrogen gas over lengths of 200 miles or fewer by truck, railway, ship, or barge.
Cryogenic liquefaction is a technique that cools hydrogen to a temperature where it turns into a liquid, producing liquefied hydrogen tankers. Despite the cost of the liquefaction process, hydrogen may be delivered by truck, railcar, ship, or barge over larger distances more effectively than using high-pressure tube trailers. If the rate of consumption of the liquefied hydrogen is insufficient, it will boil out (or evaporate) from its containment vessels. The distribution and consumption rates of hydrogen must be precisely coordinated as a result.
There are numerous difficulties in developing an infrastructure for hydrogen transport and distribution to thousands of individual fuelling stations in the future. Hydrogen is more expensive to transport, store, and deliver to the place of use than all other fuels because it has a lower energy density per unit volume than all other fuels. The initial capital expenses of constructing a new hydrogen pipeline network are considerable, and the properties of hydrogen create special difficulties in the design of compressors and pipeline materials. However, as hydrogen can be created from a wide range of resources, regional or even local hydrogen production can make the best use of available resources while reducing distribution issues.
Between centralized and dispersed manufacturing, there are trade-offs to take into account. Centralized generation of hydrogen in sizable plants lowers production costs but raises delivery expenses. For instance, producing hydrogen at filling stations reduces distribution costs but raises production costs due to the expense of setting up on-site production facilities.
Research and development initiatives by the government and business are removing the obstacles to effective hydrogen delivery. The Office of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies has more information about hydrogen delivery.
Is the Toyota Mirai pricey enough?
The Mirai has a luxuriously smooth ride, a tastefully finished interior, and a sturdy construction. Because of its rear-wheel-drive design and superior weight distribution, it drives through curves with remarkable composure. The Mirai is slightly more expensive than its rivals, and both passenger and cargo space are constrained.
Why is the Mirai priced so low?
The Toyota Mirai is one of only two hydrogen-powered automobiles that are currently being produced, making it relatively special. Although hydrogen technology is by no means new, it has only ever been utilized in concept cars, which makes Mirai a unique automobile.
We must examine every facet of operating and maintaining a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in order to comprehend why the Mirai is so inexpensive. Even if you have no plans to purchase a Mirai, I urge you to read this article because the concept behind it is both fascinating and ground-breaking.
The simple answer is that the Mirai is affordable due to the significant incentives provided when purchasing a new model, the most popular three-year lease with free fuel, a dearth of charging stations, and some consumer skepticism over the technology.
What is the price of refueling a hydrogen vehicle?
Since hydrogen is combustible, as are gasoline and lithium-ion batteries, safety is an issue. Additional safety issues are associated with the transportation of hydrogen for usage at refueling stations. Sensors are used at stations to check for leaks. In California, where the industrial sector has been carrying hydrogen for decades, there have not been any significant problems reported.
The National Fire Protection Association claims that battery-powered electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, both of which fall under the category of alternative fuels, are not any riskier than conventional internal combustion engines. According to NFPA statistics, an internal combustion engine vehicle causes a car fire in the United States around every three minutes.
In California, hydrogen fuel costs roughly $16/kg on average.
Hydrogen is sold by the kilogram and gasoline by the gallon (volume). One gallon of gasoline has roughly the same amount of energy as one kilogram of hydrogen, to put that into perspective. The majority of fuel cell electric vehicles carry between 5 and 6 kg of hydrogen but travel twice as far as a contemporary internal combustion vehicle with the same amount of petrol in the tank, which equates to $5 to $6 in gasoline per gallon.
According to the EPA, the current average range of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is between 312 and 380 miles. They will need to refill from empty, which will cost them roughly $80 (most drivers don’t allow their tanks run completely empty before refueling, so they usually only spend $55 to $65). Automakers already cover that expense by giving lessees prepaid cards good for up to $15,000 worth of fuel over the course of three years. A normal automobile with a huge petrol tank can cost $40 or more to fill up in California, the state with the highest gas prices in the country.
The Toyota Mirai, Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, and Hyundai Nexo have estimated annual fuel expenses of $4,495, which is three to four times the price of gas-powered competitors.
Shane Stephens, principal and chief development officer at FirstElement Fuel, which operates 19 of the state’s 39 hydrogen refueling stations and is building 12 of the remaining 25 stations, said, “We recognize the automakers can’t keep paying for fuel, and we see the line of sight to get there, but it is a volume game and we need to hit a critical mass.” The short-term goal of his business is $10/kg, or about $4/gal of gas. In the next three to five years, Stephens said, “that is a good near-term acceptable amount to hit and get people off automaker-subsidized fuel.”
The fundamental issue is that cars are still pricey. With a starting price of $59,345 (compared to the comparable-sized Santa Fe’s starting price of $24,250), Nexo is the most expensive Hyundai currently available for purchase in the United States. The MSRP for the fuel cell versions of the Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity is in the $59,000 to $59,999 range. Government rebates are available for some car purchases, and in California, a $5,000 tax credit is available.
Because fuel cell and battery electric vehicle technology is still in its infancy and early adopters don’t want to be locked into a specific model for an extended period of time as the technology develops and efficiency rises, leasing has become a common customer choice.
Fuel cell costs should decrease if the market expands and reaches economies of scale in production and infrastructure, as with any new technology. Although Honda has a long-term commitment to hydrogen, Kumaratne noted that automobiles cannot be sold in the absence of infrastructure.
According to Stephens, the market in California could support “a few hundred thousand cars” and compete on price with petroleum. Although that is a significant increase over the 6,000 cars sold so far, most new auto markets begin with small production runs. Toyota has stated that it intends to raise production of the Mirai from 3,000 units annually to 30,000 vehicles by 2021. “That is an increase of tenfold magnitude.”
“It won’t be long before California has a few hundred thousand cars. Additionally, Toyota alone “stated Stephens. “This is only intended to get us over the impending hurdle rather than fund infrastructure growth in its entirety. We can really start to phase out government subsidies once we reach a few hundred thousand cars and become self-sufficient.”