Toyota Mirai to start hydrogen-powered line-up

Toyota is expected to start sales of the Mirai in 2016. The production Mirai will be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and will emit nothing but water. The technology, however, will take time to be adopted. Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief engineer for the Toyota Mirai, has given a time frame of 10-20 years before fuel cell cars become as much a part of the automotive fabric as hybrids are today; a trajectory similar to the Prius' towards the end of the last century.

 

He also stated that fuel cell development has been making quick progress. A fuel cell that weighed 108kg in 2008 and produced 121bhp now weighs just 56kg and is capable of making 153bhp. Yoshikazu did, however, mention the unsolved problem of obtaining a genuine clean source of hydrogen for all fuel cell cars. Although hydrogen infrastructures are now being assembled in Japan, Berlin, London and California, they burn fossil fuels in the extraction process. He also added that the issue was not how to liberate hydrogen from renewable resources, but how to do so affordably.