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Toyota Mirai Is a Futuristic Luxury Sedan

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3 pointsrangibaby5 comments

So let's get me get this straight - you have to deliver hydrogen to all existing gas stations. Which is expensive and requires an entire new distribution infrastructure. So as an owner of a hydrogen car, I will have to bare the brunt of that.

Second, you have to make sure that the seal is tight? What happens if there is a leak? What are the safety standards? Do we trust the average person to do this correctly (especially since this is the first time most everyone will be doing this)?

And third -- There isn't a performance benefit? So why would I buy this over the existing options?

With electrics, none of these are an issue - distribution happens over the grid, fueling up is dead easy (we all know how to plug into a power outlet right?) and there are huge performance gains.

I do not see the advantage of this at all. If anyone else here has some insight that I am missing here - please enlighten me. This to me is just a gigantic dead end. Toyota went down the wrong technology path.

Nope. You pretty much have it covered. Hydrogen was very appealing when battery and hydrogen storage both needed significant development, but batteries have come a long way while hydrogen storage hasn't moved much, if at all.

Looking backwards perhaps. Looking forward and it's the opposite. Batteries are stagnating whereas hydrogen storage is accelerating very rapidly.

I'm not sure the idea batteries are stagnating is really accurate, especially since some of the material science advancements that would help hydrogen would also help batteries, especially graphene and fullerenes. Having said that, a quick poke around seems to hydrogen storage isn't as stagnated as I'd thought with metal-organic frameworks becoming potential contenders[0]. Not sure that's enough to save hydrogen from the rest of its pitfalls, but it does make things interesting.

[0] https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2020/04/gas-storage-me...

The problem is that we're hitting the limits of what's feasible with current technology. Without a revolution in material science, we're likely stuck with incremental improvements in batteries.

Fuel cells and hydrogen storage will benefit drastically from increased R&D and economies of scale. Something as simple as thinner membranes and catalyst layers will dramatically reduce cost, but until recently there has been minimal effort in such ideas. Same is true of just having more production facilities.

There are numerous new ideas being explored for hydrogen storage. Only this year has someone figured out how to make a true hydrogen "battery" for you home: https://dlmag.com/lavo-hydrogen-hybrid-battery-stores-electr...

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