I've learned something today--I did not realize that Toyota was selling Mirais outright now. I still suspect they're being produced at a loss (especially when you factor in the 3 years/$15K of included fuel and very low number being produced), but this is particularly significant because it means they're willing to let someone take one apart. That was and is presumably the main reason for going lease only, and indicates a level of maturity of the technology.Incorrect. You can buy a Toyota Mirai. There are several listed on cars.com. They cost $57.5K; the price was announces 3 years ago. You probably aren't up-to-date with latest developments. Till 2017 there was also a $8k fed tax credit ( announced retroactively). H2 took a long time to develop from 1996, but recently the cars are becoming more competitive.
My Clarity price shown on Monroney sticker is ~$59k. But it is only for lease. I will not buy it, because I don't want to pay for expensive hydrogen after 3 years. The price for hydrogen is uncertain at the moment.
Honda engineers did a great job in cuttng the cost, size and weight, and increasing the power of their FC stack to fit it all under the hood. You can read up by doing a quick search on it. I salute their perserverance, that has enabled a regular Joe in US like myself to drive a piece of modern engineering marvel. So far, I'm quite happy with the car.
They actually fit the stack and power electronics under the hood even in the prototype FCHV-adv Highlanders a decade ago (admittedly somewhat larger vehicles), and the power density of the stack and durability appeared quite good; I assume the maturity level of their technology has progressed significantly since then.
The thing is, you're talking about today. And today, you're right--a FCV is currently limited to basically California anyway, adding plug-in isn't going to get you anywhere farther outside the H2 station range, most manufacturers are giving away the fuel during the lease period so the drastically higher per-mile cost of H2 isn't a factor (plus FCV drivers are almost by definition at least economically comfortable), and it's taken a fair amount of effort to cram 300 miles of range into a midsized sedan. Likewise the larger economics--the goal of Toyota and Honda is very much to try and build out a hydrogen fueling infrastructure, so they're doing everything they can to encourage that (such as my above suspicion of selling vehicles at a loss to seed the market and giving away huge amounts of fuel with purchase/lease). They're trying very hard to get ahead of the chicken-egg equation.@M.M.But here is why it doesn't make sense for passenger cars. My midsize Clarity already has a truncated trunk and a footprint of my SUV due to the tank. I don't want more space taken away or more weight added to this already heavy car (at 4000 lbs; still better than lower range Teslas). Besides, it just adds more complications and cost. Plug in FC makes more sense for buses and trucks, as they have more spare space to fit multiple powertrains.
Also, a primary purpose now is to developthe H2 refueling and generation infrastructure. Station owners are unwilling to invest because they are not sure how many will fill up and if they will get their ROI. If you make a more costly plug-in FC car, there will be even less fill ups, which will dissuade new station development. If producing enough hydrogen becomes a challenge, then this may make more sense.
So, it's not just a technical issue. There are some economic aspects to be considereed too.
I'm talking about many years in the future with a much less fossil fuel dependent transportation fleet. At the scale of hundreds of thousands of unsubsidized vehicles, rather than a couple thousand of subsidized ones, the inherent roundtrip inefficiencies of hydrogen may (not will, but may) have a real impact at the generation end (you quite simply might have to build three times as large a wind farm to get the same number of commuter vehicle miles), and the per-mile fuel cost at the consumer level may be nontrivial. Of course some breakthrough like cheap industrial biofuel-produced H2 might change that equation, but it's certainly not a given.
Likewise for the technology--what would be cramped and eating up your trunk today might fit just fine with the battery technology and fuel cell advancements ten years from now. Certainly there have been staggering improvements in both over the past ten years.
There will be a significant market for long-haul transportation fuel (road trips, interstate trucking, etc), which hydrogen is much better suited to than battery energy, but it's a tough competition for city driving, and for those who don't want to or can't afford to own two cars (which is exactly why I have a PHEV today despite being able to do >90% of my driving EV only even with only a 50 mile range), a PFCEV (or whatever) may one day be a very viable alternative to a bifurcated transportation fleet.
Just to note, on the plugging in, I feel like maybe you were doing it wrong. I've been driving a PHEV for two years now, and only ever drove it wherever and plugged in once when I got home and parked in the driveway. It takes an extra 5 seconds, give or take, to plug/unplug the car when leaving/arriving home (if I don't know I'm leaving again later), but that's it. And the result was I only make maybe one trip to a gas station a month. With the extra 10 miles or so of range on the Clarity, that'll probably be once every three months. The time and hassle saved stopping to refuel compared to when I had a liquid-fueled vehicle is easily worth the tradeoff.I have been plugging in my electric car 2-4 times a day (plug & unplug), parking far away from the building entrance where I work. I am just tired of all that. I don't have to plug in anymore. I don't find any pleasure going out in odd hours in rain or shine to plug in my car so frequently. Even though I have a garage, I park on the driveway. It is quite a common scene even in the suburbs.
Moreover, this idea of plugging in at home doesn't work for a vast majority of people around the world and also in US, because they live in apartments and high rise buildings. But I suppose they could add chargers for a cost. But the cost of charging with such chargers will be higher per mile compared to even the current H2 cost.
In short, this idea is not really useful other than convincing the very early adopters of H2 cars. We are beyond that stage now. By next year, CA should have double the number of H2 stations, making the detours much shorter for many more people.
But of course to some it won't be, and you might be in that category. Assuming a more robust and unsubsidized BEV/FCV transportation system in which H2 fuel costs 3x as much as charging your car at home as part of a smart grid, some people will just choose to drive on H2 all the time because they can afford it and it's worth it to them. Some will drive BEVs because that suits their needs or they want to save money. Others, I'm guessing, want the same sweet spot PHEVs currently occupy--cheap fuel for commuting most of the time, but no range anxiety and the ability to drive longer distances with more expensive fuel if necessary. PHEV owners are willing to pay extra for that now, I'm guessing PFCV owners will be some day as well.
Things could be different for high-rise dwellers, but I suspect if the plug-in transportation economy fleshes out chargers will be a given at any residential parking space (in the garage or on-street), and a smart grid will time charging for the least expensive periods (and balance loads in the area), resulting in a fairly inexpensive source of fuel. Unsubsidized EV charging at low-load times is already substantially cheaper than gasoline, and it would take a fairly massive breakthrough in biofuel-produced hydrogen to be competitive with that.
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