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Toyota's New Hydrogen-Powered, "Minus Emissions" Mirai Cleans the Surrounding Air as You Drive

By Rain Noe - December 10, 2020

in Cars | Tech

Toyota's new 2021 Mirai, which went on sale yesterday in Japan and comes to the U.S. later this month, has a neat trick: Unlike gasoline-powered cars, the hydrogen-fueled Mirai leaves the environment cleaner as it passes through it.

The car is equipped with Toyota's "Minus Emissions" technology, whereby air is taken into the vehicle, purified, sent into the fuel stack in order to generate electricity, then vented back out of the vehicle. By the time it comes out of the exhaust, the air has been scrubbed of any harmful chemicals and particulate matter 2.5 microns or greater in size. (And no, they haven't tested it on COVID-infected air.)

Are people around you likely to notice that you've left fresher air? Perhaps not, but you will: "The large 12.3-inch center display includes an Air Purification display that shows the amount of air purified when driving through an easy-to-understand graphic of runners and digital display," the company writes. "It also includes an Air Purification meter that shows how much air is purified during acceleration. The meter enables the driver to feel the contribution that the new Mirai is making to the environment."

The tricky part for the 2021 Mirai is going to be market placement. The sedan beats the pants off the Tesla in range, with 528 miles to the Tesla's maximum 402, but it doesn't have the cache of the Tesla; and range-loving environmentalists may prefer the 640-mile range of the Prius, if they can live with less interior space.

The true challenge of hydrogen-powered cars is not just range anxiety, but refueling anxiety. According to NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores), a network serving the convenience and fuel retail industries, there are just 48 retail hydrogen fueling stations in America--and 43 of them are in California. Accordingly, the Mirai will only be on offer in Toyota dealerships in the Golden State.

Image: InsideEVs

Mirai buyers will, however, see a benefit that owners of other vehicles will not. Toyota is including $15,000 or three years' worth of free fuel top-ups. Assuming they can use all of it, that means the $32,000 car would actually cost just $17k.

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Mark Dziubczynski

3 years ago

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I recall George Bush (#2) talking about hydrogen cars. I'm. BIG FAN. Less oil is good, but may make tires cost $5k! ha. they will find a way to get money.

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Jeff Del Papa

3 years ago

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Right now, hydrogen is only a thing because it isn't a threat to the oil industry. If it did happen, it would mean new markets for natural gas, to offset any lessening demand for liquid fuels.

They are holding it up as a Shiny New Thing, that Will Be Great, and you can buy one Real Soon Now. Just buy one more gasoline burning car, and when it's time to replace that, we will have this wonderful thing for you. Whatever you do, don't buy one of those impractical, and inconvenient battery electric cars, because if you did, a truly horrific thing could occur. Transportation could happen without any way for an oil company to make a profit from it.
/sarcasm

Unfortunately Hydrogen is a true dead end. Despite its place as the most abundant element in the universe (that we know about), free hydrogen doesn't exist on the surface of this planet. You want it, you have to pry it away from a compound. This will always take more energy than you can get back from the process.

Its hard to store, bulky compared to liquid fuels, and the current best available batteries, and difficult (and inefficient) to generate. Right now hydrogen is a fossil fuel, its made by steam reforming methane, with CO and CO2 as byproducts. Yes, you can generate it by electrolysis of water. It takes 50-55 kWh of electricity to separate a kilogram of hydrogen, compress it to storage pressure, and chill. The previous generation of Mirai would get about 66 miles from that amount of hydrogen. Take that same 50-55 kWh and charge a comparably sized battery electric vehicle with it, and get 200-220 miles from it.

The batteries will be smaller (but heavier) than the hydrogen storage, and will be allowed into tunnels and underground parking structures that currently prohibit vehicles transporting it to use them. (this includes propane fueled cars) You also won't have the problem of getting your pressure tank checked regularly. Current tanks store the hydrogen at 650 bar, and are large enough to invoke some jurisdictions laws about pressure vessel certification.

Electrical generation on average in the US results in 90 grams of CO2 per mile in an average BEV, well ahead of the current gas powered automotive average of 350 grams per mile. Electric sourced hydrogen will be triple that figure, don't know enough about the steam reforming process to do an accurate calculation for the methane source. (just accounting for the input chemicals, you get about 5kg of CO2 for every kg of hydrogen extracted, but that doesn't account for all the heat you have to add)

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Mark H

3 years ago

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The pessimist in me says that's just a way of letting the user know how much life is left in their air filter. So now the drivers have range anxiety, refueling anxiety, and filter anxiety.

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