Fuel cell electric vehicles, powered by hydrogen, have the potential to transform transportation because they emit zero pollutants…only water and heat.
Though this ‘vehicle of the future’ has always seemed to be close to coming to fruition, there has not been any real significant development due to number of technical and economic challenges in quite some time.
The recently unveiled Toyota Mirai, which runs on electricity made in on-board cells, is betting big on hydrogen to emerge as the green car of the future.
Toyota ‘Mirai’ can help the world reduce its dependence on oil:
The Toyota Mirai (‘future’ in Japanese) has a range of about 300 miles (480km) on a full tank of compressed hydrogen and the refueling time takes less than five minutes. A full tank can produce enough electricity to power an average U.S. household for one week!
The biggest hurdle in getting the buyers to consider these vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fueling stations. As a result, Toyota is subsidizing the building of hydrogen stations in US and the Japanese government is also planning to build around 100 stations by early 2015.
In the United States, Mirai is expected to arrive by the fall of 2015. It will be priced at $57,500 or $499 a month for a 36-month lease. Federal and state incentives will further reduce the cost to under $45,000.
