What is the cheapest car in America? Until recently, we might have said the Mitsubishi Mirage or the Nissan Versa, but there’s a surprise new contender. This is no penalty box hatchback either. It’s a four-door luxury sedan with cutting-edge looks and a radical powertrain. That’s right—I’m talking about the Toyota Mirai!
As covered by CarsDirect, Toyota has been dishing out massive discounts on 2024 models of its flaghsip fuel cell vehicle. Southern California has seen discounts approaching 70%, dropping the price of a Mirai to less than $17,000. Not only that, but Toyota has been throwing in $15,000 in free fuel to sweeten the deal.
The Mirai was supposed to help Toyota herald in the age of hydrogen transportation. Now it’s sitting firmly in the bargain bin. Let’s explore these crazy deals and how it all went so wrong.
Hot Deal
It’s no surprise these cars are going out cheap, as Mirai sales have slowed to a crawl. Demand for hydrogen cars has never really eventuated and it doesn’t help that you can’t access the fuel in most of the country. Just 499 examples were sold in 2024, compared to 2,737 sold in 2023. The big discounts have been on 2024 models which naturally became less desirable when the calendar flicked over to 2025.
In Southern California, you can save up to $35,000 on a Mirai XLE, which usually retails around $51,325 including destination fees. After the discount, that comes down to around $16,325. That’s enough to make the Mirai the cheapest new car on sale in the United States right now. You’re also getting a whole lot more car for your money compared to the next cheapest entry, with the compact Nissan Versa starting at $18,330 in comparison.
If your tastes are a little more luxurious, you could go with the Limited trim. It starts at $68,250, but discounts up to $43,000 are available. Do the sums, and you’d end up paying around $25,000 and some change.
You want to buy in Southern California to score big. Up in Northern California, you’re only going to get discounts of $25,000 on the XLE and $33,000 on the limited. Stingy, no? Whichever way you go, these offers are available under Toyota’s Finance Subvention Cash program. Basically, they’re cutting you a sweet deal that’s only available with special financing, which is at an attractive 0% APR right now. Throw in $15,000 of free hydrogen fuel, and you’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Sadrogen
It’s worth noting that you don’t actually have to live in California to get this deal. You could fly in from anywhere in the country and pick up a cheap Mirai, no problems. However, you would struggle to drive it far beyond the state border. That’s not because of any laws or regulations, but purely down to the 402-mile range of the Mirai and the limitations of hydrogen infrastructure.
The Department of Energy lists just 54 hydrogen filling stations in the US, 53 of which are in California and 1 in Hawaii. Some of those are currently out of order, too, due to supply disruptions. Based on their locations, you could just about get from the Sacramento filling stop to Reno and back before you ran out of gas (haha, get it?). Alternatively, you could try a trip from LA to Las Vegas, but you’d probably run out of fuel somewhere near Edwards Air Force Base on the way back. Don’t crawl under the razor wire looking for help, they hate it when you do that.
Ultimately, it’s a sad reflection on hydrogen fuel cell technology. It was once touted as the ultimate replacement for gasoline, providing energy with no harmful carbon emissions and fast refueling. Regardless, it never found a foothold. Hydrogen cars were obscure, infrastructure proved expensive, and widespread rollouts of either never took place. As EV technology moved along at a rapid pace, the case for hydrogen cars grew ever weaker.
Let’s run the maths on that $15,000 of free fuel that Toyota is throwing in, too. Last year, hydrogen prices rose to around $34/kg. The Mirai will drive approximately 72 miles per kilogram of hydrogen. Thus, that offer will net you about 441 kg of hydrogen, enough for you to drive just over 31,000 miles. Not bad! You do only get three years to use your free fuel allowance, though.
It’s a funny state of affairs. On the one hand, there’s never been a better time to buy a Toyota Mirai. They’re cheap as hell, and the fuel is free. On the other hand, these cars have very little resale value. Punters won’t be lining up around the block to buy your Mirai in a few years, given it’s largely landlocked to California and the very western edges of Nevada and Arizona. Indeed, it’s no surprise the Ukraine Army used a Mirai as a bomb, given they’re not particularly useful as transport when there are no hydrogen pumps around.
If you’re a big fan of fuel cells, buy a Mirai to support the hydrogen cause. If you’re insanely rich, buy one for your friend as a joke. If you’re just looking to get around, though, you might find the Nissan Versa more useful, even at the hefty price premium of $2,000. It’s an interesting time to be shopping for a new car in California, no?
Image credits: Toyota, Cars.com via screenshot, h2fcp.org via screenshot
Even, platform-wise, it’s an expensive car. It’s on the TNGA-L platform, with the current Lexus LS sedan and Lexus LC coupe/cabriolet.
can we K-swap these dang things? if so, I’m in.
Some YouTuber has to do it. Though I’d prefer a J…
Yep… these are cheap now because the truth is out and well-known now.
Hydrogen cars are inefficient, expensive-to-operate bullshit.
Hydrogen vehicles HAVE NO FUTURE.
I have a buddy who is still holding onto the hydrogen future. I don’t get it at all. EVs are not perfect but at least you can fill them up (slowly) anywhere there’s an electrical outlet if you can’t get to a proper charger.
Tell him to buy one of those cheap used Toyota Mirai so he can “live the dream”
LOL
Some people just need to learn the hard way…
There is a Chevron station near me that has a hydrogen pump. It’s also right next to my Land Rover mechanic. If they would let me store the Mirai in their shop, this could save me a ton of money on Ubers.
“Car company makes arguably most attractive vehicle in their lineup and then saddles it with a literally impossible power train.
News at 11.”
Couldn’t Toyota just put a more conventional means of propulsion in the car?
Metrolink in Southern California is rolling out a H2 powered commuter train for a 9 mile route.
And was that REALLY better than just running a third rail?
This sounded really cool (I’m a SoCal resident) until I realized $15,000 of fuel only gets you 31,000 miles. That’s $0.48 per mile!
If we assumed a hybrid car driving 40 miles at 40 mpg at a gas price of $4.50 per gallon, that would be $0.11 per mile, or 23% the fuel cost per mile of the Mirai.
Now it makes sense to me why these are being so heavily discounted. Even if you live in SoCal, the price of fuel is a non-starter.
Amazon has Hydrogen Generation machines for 1200. wonder if they produce enough pressure to fill these cars from your garage like an EV?
I highly doubt it.
No. All I see on Amazon in that price range are generators to make hydrogen for inhalation therapy. That means almost no pressure.
10k compressors are a lot more than $1500.
Challenging. You need high pressure – 350 bar or 700 bar – I’m not sure what the Mirai uses exactly.
You also need a lot of it – kilograms of hydrogen, here. Making some is easy – just electrify some water in the proper manner – but to make it cheaply, you’d want abundant solar or wind rather than paying grid rates.
I would probably say the same. most of the generators they see are more the instant fuel economy increasers. I have seen a few attached to a car injecting outputs into the carb to increase fuel economy (seems Very Tornado intake like), but the pressure does not seem very high and in fact I am a little surprised the end result is not engine knock and failure.
https://www.amazon.com/MXBAOHENG-Hydrogen-Generator-Electrolyzer-0%EF%BD%9E0-4MPa/dp/B0792V14NW?gQT=1&th=1
This set up out puts roughly 4 Bar, but the question is would that use so much energy from your wall to get to 600, that the benefits would certainly not be there.
Eh, these are great for fleets who have access to their own hydrogen stations. General public? Not so much.
Also, wagon option, please??
Is it possible to make your own hydrogen using water as some electrode than a battery? Asking for a friend
Yes, but pressurizing the hydrogen and keeping it the right temperature or something seems to be the limitations.
Yes, but that’s unpressurized, so not useful for refueling a Mirai, and you do NOT want to play around with DIY pressurized hydrogen.
Electrolysis is the “cleanest” (assuming you aren’t using fossil fuels to generate the electricity) but is also a super inefficient method for generating hydrogen. Most hydrogen on the market is produced by catalyzing natural gas. It’s still fossil fuel-based, but “cleaner” than burning gasoline.
Yes but the efficiency will be very low compared to just charging a BEV. Even commercial units only achieve about 40% RT efficiency vs 90%+ with a BEV.
Then there’s the cost. To fill up a HFCV you need a generator, 10k H2 compressor, storage tank and associate hardware. Last I checked for a fancy home setup that was around $90k. If you are willing to go with a Made In China compressor you can get one of those for about $25k. They are also quite bulky, you might lose your parking space. You would also need to get a permit from your city
Compared to a L2 dryer plug you might already have the cost, bulk and hassle of home hydrogen filling is looking pretty awful.
Exactly. I’m about to go down to Home Depot to get everything I need to install a 60 amp circuit for my new EV. Cost to me will be about $300 since I’m doing the install myself (former electrician). But even paying someone to do it would be orders of magnitude cheaper than an at home hydrogen setup.
Yes, but see … You can make your own hydrogen at home by electrocuting water! Free fuel! What could go wrong!?
Seen the various home style attempts at this sort of thing.
Usually quite entertaining TBH.
It’s almost at the price where someone will figure out how to gut the fuel cells out of it in favor of more batteries or a gasoline range extender instead. You can’t legally do that in a CARB state, but it’ll get done.
The fuel cells just convert H2 to electricity and store that in a small onboard battery. The motive portion of this vehicle is electric.
Once the conversion is figured out, someone could probably make decent coin buying these up and converting them for resale. Or converting them under contract. Tough way to make more than hobby money, though, and sure to dry up quickly.
But can you get caught? To my knowledge, EVs don’t get smogged for obvious reasons. So unless your Range Extender is literally bellowing out black smoke all over I5, I don’t know how you’d get in trouble.
Perfect for an LS swap!!!!!
It’s a Toyota… just do the 2JZ swap that it was destined for.
Can these discounts be extended to a lease? If I lived near a station I would totally rock a $200 lease on a completely unique car with free fuel as a daily commuter / second car. Why not?
A lease also solves the problem of what the heck to do with the car after you’re done with it. These fueling stations are all subsidized and experimental, so they are likely to be completely shut down at some point. When that happens, you can’t sell the car, you can’t donate it to charity, and I actually wonder if the local salvage yard would even take it.
“what the heck to do with the car after you’re done with it. These fueling stations are all subsidized and experimental, so they are likely to be completely shut down at some point. When that happens, you can’t sell the car, you can’t donate it to charity, and I actually wonder if the local salvage yard would even take it.”
Here’s a grossly oversimplified suggestion:
Import a wrecked CNG Prius or CNG Camry hybrid whichever is more feasible.
Swap the fuel cell of the Mirai with the drive train from the CNG hybrid
Make everything work. Great fodder for a youtuber.
You’ll end up with a dual motor, 380 hp AWD car with I would guess about 800-900 miles of range that runs on one of the cheapest, most widely available fuels on the planet.
Easy peasy!
I think it would be easier to just convert it to a full BEV.
Maybe. You won’t have anywhere near the range of a hybrid though.
Nah… I’m thinking as a BEV, it could be useful as a 2nd vehicle for local errands.
And in theory, it should be cheaper to convert. It already has a 182hp electric motor and small battery pack. Would need to add more battery capacity and an on-board charger and then the electronics to make it all work.
And you can put the batteries in the space created after the fuel cell and hydrogen tanks are ripped out.
Well then a couple of used Leafs are your donors.
“Import a wrecked CNG Prius or CNG Camry hybrid whichever is more feasible.”
There are CNG conversion kits on alibaba for under $200. We could go junkyard Prius engine and get it to only run in charge mode.
“I would guess about 800-900 miles of range”
So even if the tank on the Mirai can handle higher pressures like 10k psi, you will never find a CNG pump that can supply it. There would be little point to building one either because fuel density starts leveling off after 1500 psi. Probably would want a secondary fuel tank in the trunk if you are planning on going very far.
No need to go to 10k PSI. According to this reference H2 at 10k psi contains 4.46 MJ/L whereas CNG at 3.6k PSI (for which commercial filing stations do exist) contains 11.43 KJ/L. All else being equal the 400 mi range of the Mirai on hydrogen becomes 993 mi on CNG even at that lower pressure.
Of course the FC is more thermally efficient than the ICE so using the published 41% TE efficiency of Toyota’s current hybrid engines that 800-900 miles estimate will be down rated to *only* 646 miles filling the tank with 3600 PSI CNG. That’s still quite good.
What would make this project even better is a more efficient ICE hybrid system like Nissan’s ePower at a claimed 50% TE or Mazda’s purple unicorn Skyactiv3 at 56%. Or if somebody like Bloom Energy made a CNG FC.
Oh well, maybe someday.
Worth noting:
CNG at fast-fill stations is often stored in the vessels at a high service pressure (4,300 psi) so the dispenser can deliver it to a vehicle quickly.
If that pressure can be delivered to the tank then the range goes up to about 725 miles.
In Australia some some stations actually supply 5,000 psi, but my point still is that you will not find anything higher than 3,600 psi in the US
I presume that is because CNG vehicles here only use 3600 psi tanks. It might be a different story if more cars pulled up to the pump with tanks designed to hold 10k.
.
The CNG civic can take 8 GGE at 3600 psi, which would take up 4.1 ft³. The volume of the Mirai tank is 4.97 ft³, so it can hold 9.76 GGE at 3600 psi. Even if you can match the 57 mpg efficiency of the Prius (doubtful), this is only 557 miles.
“Or if somebody like Bloom Energy made a CNG FC.”
There are lots of companies. Bosch sells a SOFC that can use CNG but it is only for stationary backup currently because it is still the size of a server cabinet.
Well lessee:
The Gen2 Mirai has 37.5 gallons of H2 (CNG) storage.
https://www.townandcountrytoyota.com/showroom/2024/Toyota/Mirai/Sedan.htm
One GGE of CNG at 3600 PSI requires 0.51 cuft of storage
https://energy.ozinga.com/2020/10/12/gge-and-dge-measuring-cng/
37.5 gal = 5.01 cuft
So the Mirai will hold 9.82 GGE of CNG at 3600 PSI.
If our converted Mirai achieves 57 MPG it will only get ~559 miles on it’s tank. Well your numbers are not as attractive as mine but I do agree with their reasoning. Looks like I’ll have to get out and push my hypothetical Mirai those last 87 miles. All 4255 lbs of it.
Ugh.
“There are lots of companies. Bosch sells a SOFC that can use CNG but it is only for stationary backup currently because it is still the size of a server cabinet.”
True but those are AFAIK all large stationary generators like your Bosch. This hypothetical generator for a car would need DOT approval among other things. If that could be done and if the converted Mirai matched the 76 city / 71 hwy MPGe efficiency of the HFC you’d have a 746 city / 697 hwy car.
Unfortunately in more bad news the national pump price of CNG is no longer the screaming bargain it once was. Its now $2.91 GGE vs $3.25 for a gallon of regular.
https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/prices.html
Hmm, you know what? A Camry hybrid just keeps looking better and better. I have a new idea for the Mirai:
https://c.tenor.com/cB6Kzon0MqAAAAAd/tenor.gif
“37.5 gal = 5.01 cuft”
So I converted from 141 Liters directly and not to gallons first so you might have some extra rounding and conversion error in there, but I believe only someone that works for a car dealership would round 37.248 gal up a whole quarter gallon. I would bet that Japanese engineers like to pick a strong palindromic number in Liters.
“I have a new idea for the Mirai”
I am a believer in Turquoise hydrogen, because if you use biomethane for methane pyrolysis the carbon life cycle numbers are negative. This would also stack advance biofuel tax credits that have been around since W was president. Building a bio-hydrogen refueling station that makes hydrogen on site would be great, but using natural gas is still an incremental improvement that I would be fine with.
Monolith is the market leader in the US. They have a full size plant operating that makes carbon black for tires in Nebraska. I believe fertilizer plants are the hydrogen customers.
I like the Hazer group in Australia because they have some catalyst that makes the solid carbon into high quality graphite. Been following them for years and it looks like they got finally their pilot plant running. I think synthetic graphite is so valuable that the hydrogen is technically a byproduct that could be sold at a loss.
Modern hydrogen is an upstart company that I do not know much about, except that on their teams page it shows them posing with Bill Gates after he gave them a check, so they are probably legit. Looks like they have a 500 kg per day unit that they are trying to sell that would be enough for a refueling station. The idea is they would come pick up the solid carbon product and go sell it as a road asphalt additive. Maybe a bit large to fill your one hypothetical car, but a laboratory scale one is definitely possible. Probably with stuff that could be found at a junkyard plus a plasma torch.
Since we were discussing a US market car I wanted to use a US market source, just in case there was some difference between market tank volumes besides rounding and conversion errors.
Turquoise hydrogen does sound intriguing. IF they can keep the costs down, IF they can keep the energy losses reasonable and IF that carbon soot is fully sequestered *permanently* (e.g. not secretly burned just to get rid of it and not dumped into a river) it could be a game changer. One paper mentioned dumping the soot into abandoned coal mines. There is poetic justice in that idea.
Even better, CVD diamonds. Diamonds are literally a more attractive storage solution than soot and as we know diamonds are forever.
Turquoise hydrogen only works if the value of the carbon product is greater than the value of the electricity required for production. Otherwise it will not be able to compete with the partial oxidation process at scale.
The thing I do not like about just dumping it in a hole is who pays for it over the long term. Maybe carbon markets will get good enough, but having a plan to make a real product is probably important for long term viability. Diamonds would make a good aggregate but very energy intensive.
I like activated carbon. If you take the low value soot and hit it with a quick bust of steam, microscopic pores are oxidized into the structure. The pores allow for ion exchange, which is why I already buy activated carbon to filter my water and air. With a crapload more it could be applied as a soil amendment that would absorb toxins while improving water and nutrient holding capacity. It will not last forever but 90% will still be there in 100 years, which is good enough for something that also increases productivity.
“The thing I do not like about just dumping it in a hole is who pays for it over the long term”
If you mean the environmental impact then nobody. It just goes into the very same holes we’ve been pulling coal out of for hundreds of years. Those holes already contain lots of coal dust and that ground contained coal long before humans ever walked the earth so more of the same I don’t think will do further harm. Those mines are also filled with equipment designed to handle coal dust and surrounded by communities of workers with generations of experience dealing with coal dust and would LOVE to have jobs that are as similar as possible to what those previous generations did.
SBC swap, anyone?
So is Hyundai going to counter with crazy Nexo deals now?
So….bring a trailer, amiright?
I love the design and layout, Jimmy Durantesque proboscis excepted. It’s kind of a shame this can’t be retrofit with a hybrid or ICE powertrain somehow.
I always just thought having one would be fun simply because OHUMNTY or HNDNBRG would probably be available as license plates.
I am sure this will be trouble at the repair shop. Parts for the fuel system and god knows what else will become quite hard to come by.
The only car Toyota makes that doesn’t force you to ignore how ugly it is (except the new Prius, I guess) and it’s undriveable pretty much anywhere.
Imagine this with a ~350HP PHEV powertrain or as a dual motor BEV with a real liftback instead of the dumb tiny trunk. We could have had a Toyota A7. The resources wasted on designing, building, selling and fueling this rolling testament to Toyota’s hard-headedness are criminal.
I never thought I’d live to see the day where I’d actually say, with all sincerity, “Toyota makes the ugliest cars on the road, except that stunning Prius.” That’s the sound me punching my 2010 self in the stomach.
Will the trunk space fit my Betamax, laserdisc, and Zune?
COTD candidate here kids.
The infotainment allows you to pair with your Zune and record direct to tape.
Not tape, it actually only supports ZipDiscs.
DAT forever baby!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape
I hear it has an optional minidisc player mounted in the trunk and I vaguely remember the maps being loaded on HD DVD discs.
Not holding my breath on the efficacy of Hydrogen vehicles but the Mirai is the best looking sedan in Toyota’s lineup by a long shot imo.
It somewhat looks like a family-sized BRZ/FRS/GT86.
I’d buy a 5-door BRZ with functional rear seats.
Me too, I mean, I’d rather the coupe, but I could actually claim mileage on the 4-door
Disagree. It’s ugly. The Prius the the best looking Toyota and those are words I never thought I would say. Toyota and BMW seem to be having a battle as to who can make the ugliest cars.
I like the current generation of Prius as well, but I’ll have to agree with the race to the ugliest cars lol.
Being that it’s a fuel cell, I wonder what it would take to convert to another fuel source like propane, butane, or CNG.
Not sure anyone buying one new would want to instantly jump into such an endeavour, but if prices are dropping this quickly, perhaps it would make sense.
That would not work. Fuel cell cars works by pushing Hydrogen through a special membrane to create a chemical reaction with oxygen. The output is electricity and water. (Released as vapour due to heat generated by the chemical reaction.) Nothing else.
Propane/butane/CNG are completely different chemically, so the membrane will not create the required chemical reaction.
So, not an option.
There are researchers working on creating ethanol-consuming fuel cells. I think Nissan actually had a prototype car working like that. So, while it’s possible in theory, I’d say there are very few people around with the skills and access to resources to accomplish such a conversion. Heck, considering the availability of corn-based ethanol in the US, perhaps Toyota would have done it itself were the technology mature enough.
Major challenges being faced, as far as I know, are size and efficiency, but there are people researching the subject, specially because batteries do not seem to be a viable solution (yet) for long haul cargo transport.
The ethanol option might be quite viable in Brazil where E100 is widely available.
The best option would be fuel cell swap. SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) can reform hydrocarbons into hydrogen internally, so it could just run all those fuels. Bosch makes one, but the 100 kw unit which would be equivalent is much larger physically. If you wait long enough there will be a fuel agnostic fuel cell that will swap in and be the same output and physical size. Maybe a 30 kW SOFC that you could get today in car size would be good enough with also adding a bigger battery, but this would be expensive.
The other option would be to build a reformer before the fuel cell. This would turn whatever fuel to hydrogen on board. Steam would be an option but a bad one I think. I would go with a plasma torch in a chamber with no oxygen. Figuring out how to get the solid carbon to go into a storage compartment or cycling with air to burn it off from inside the chamber would be the hardest part.
$15,000 in fuel to drive 31,000 miles is basically the equivalent of 6 mpg at $3 gas.
It’s time to stop trying to make hydrogen happen.
E-fuels show way more promise because they can use existing infrastructure with basically no modifications.
And the three-year limit and restricted areas where hydrogen is viable means it’s likely buyers will do even worse than the $3 gas at 6 mpg for their $15k in free fuel.
Probably true as well.
To put it another way, if Toyota offered 31,000 miles worth of free fuel on a Prius, it would only cost them about $1600.
That’s the real value of this offer IMO.
That perspective just unlocked memories of the free gas promos ~20 years ago (yikes) from manufacturers, at least Chrysler did anyway. I remember a lot of forum posts with people doing the math on whether it was worth that or just a discount.
Not really. E fuels are just a far, far less efficient way to use electricity.
They are inefficient in a strict energy in/energy out calculation but at many times denser than batteries they will have their uses.
Denser in what way? Hydrogen pressure tanks are cylindrical or spherical They have to be. So they are harder to package vs batteries that can take any shape.
E fuels are not hydrogen, they are liquids that go in a normal gas tank.
Ah yes, sorry.
Still the point of efficiency is I think a dealbreaker. Any hydrogen base stock made from otherwise unusable surplus domestic power is more efficiently used in industry to replace FF sourced hydrogen.
There may be a few extreme cases however in which it makes more sense to produce and transport e-fuels; however I think any such e-fuel production will be commandeered by long range aviation since that sector has no other realistic option. And I expect demand from aviation alone will vastly exceed supply.
Considering the EV charging infrastructure is orders of magnitude more developed and you can always L0 charge off any wallplug and get going eventually, and yet there’s a lot of resistance based on how much less developed it is than that for gasoline – it’s over, hydrogen lost.
Even with an all-in push to hydrogen, in the time it could get to the point EV charging is now, electric adoption on its’ own will be at the point where people will think of having to make an errand to fuel up in your own town just to drive around it the way car owners in the 1920s thought about having had to feed a horse even while not using it.
What’s a good crate motor run these days?
I’m thinking a junkyard LS swap
I wonder what it would take to do an EV conversion.
I think a few batteries and a dual PHD in electrical engineering and software engineering. Just yank out the tanks and you’ll have lots of room for batteries. Easy peezy.
Still might be easier than an engine swap, if I understand how FCVs work (which I probably do not). Since the power is delivered by electric motors, I was thinking it would probably be simpler to do a full EV conversion than throw a conventional engine in. Could be wrong. I haven’t even seen a Mirai, much less gotten into the powertrain.
The electric powertrain is there, so that part is done. But I would think that yanking out the fuel cell would render its current controllers pretty useless. If you were smart enough, you could probably figure out how to get the system to function since you are just swapping electricity from the fuel cell for electricity from a battery (and it may actually already have a battery in between for bursts of power, so maybe you splice in right there) but I don’t think that’s backyard job. So I don’t know, it’s probably less custom fabrication but at least as much electronics.
I think “sold” shifted in transit on the way to my computer.
To address the Mirai itself, though, if I were someone who did most of my travel within CA, I still don’t think I’d go for it. The pile of free fuel is tempting, but hydrogen is currently expensive and will remain so. Hydrogen fuel cells for passenger vehicles just doesn’t seem like the play. It’s too expensive and resource-intensive to make and store hydrogen, and that’s not going to get better in the life of this vehicle.
Its like a lottery ticket, you buy it now for the chance to be in on the class action lawsuit against Toyota when the hydrogen infrastructure completely goes away before you can use the $15k of fuel.
The argument that Hydrogen is “nearly free” that you use baseload electrical generation like hydro-electric / nuclear where you can’t effectively turn them down.
But the infrastructure isn’t there, and there’s little incentive to the consumer when the oil industry is so heavily subsidized already and the costs are being passed to the customer.
Any hydrogen generated that way is far more effectively used to replace gray (FF NG) hydrogen made for industry.
The theory of consumer use is that it helps drive the demand and infrastructure.
Until “grey” hydrogen increases in cost, it’s hard to displace industrial uses.
“The theory of consumer use is that it helps drive the demand and infrastructure.”
Perhaps but as we see here that theory has fallen flat on its face when it comes to hydrogen as a transport fuel.
“Until “grey” hydrogen increases in cost, it’s hard to displace industrial uses.”
Gray hydrogen I think will always be with us. It’s a very good use for natural gas produced as a byproduct of oil production. Much better than flaring that gas and much, much better than just releasing it into the atmosphere, especially if the hydrogen could be generated on site with the CO2 pumped back into the well.
That nearly free hydrogen is better suited to things that aren’t passenger vehicles. Beyond the creation of it, you still have the problems of storage and distribution. Passenger vehicles go too many places to make the buildout practical in the foreseeable future.
As Cheap Bastard mentioned, industrial use makes a lot more sense, at least for now.