Car dealers in California are offering “clear-out” $40,000 discounts on Toyota’s hydrogen powered Mirai, a car that normally retails for $US52,000 ($A80,000), according to Wards Auto.
This means you can pick one up for around $US12,000.
The amazing deal however comes with one small challenge, where to fuel it.
Fuelling hydrogen passenger vehicles became even more difficult in California last month when vice president of Shell Hydrogen, Andrew Beard announced the company was closing all seven of its hydrogen stations immediately due to “supply complications and other external market factors.”
With only 55 hydrogen stations in the state, the announcement effectively takes out 12% of California’s hydrogen fuelling stations.
According to Wards Auto, the Mirai is only sold in California and there are only about 25 in stock, a trivial number compared to the 446,961 electric vehicles sold in the state in 2023.
Hydrogen 14 times more expensive per km than electric
Aside from the huge amount of complexity in the hydrogen supply chain and the vehicle itself, hydrogen is incredibly expensive compared to electricity. A big part reason for that is the fundamental inherent inefficiencies involved in its production.
In September last year, Hydrogen Insight found that its now almost 14 times more expensive to drive a Toyota hydrogen car in California than a Tesla Model 3.
“California’s largest H2 fuel retailer, True Zero, which operates 37 of the 53 hydrogen filling stations in the state, recently hiked the price of H2 at all its pumps to $36/kg, up from around $30/kg.” says Hydrogen Insight.
“At the new price, filling a Toyota Mirai’s 5.6kg tank would cost $201.60 — around $0.50 per mile, according to the Japanese auto maker’s claimed driving range of 400 miles (647km).”
“By way of comparison, fully charging a 60kWh Tesla Model 3 in California would cost $11.94, based on the latest average electricity prices. With an official range of 333 miles on a full battery, it therefore costs $0.036 per mile — almost 14 times cheaper than the Mirai, which is by far the most common fuel-cell car in the state.”
Bright future for hydrogen once Toyota engineers figure out how to change the laws of physics
None of this is surprising however as the biggest obstacle to the commercialisation of hydrogen powered vehicles has always been the laws of thermodynamics.
What has been surprising is just how long companies like Toyota have pretended this “technology” has a future.
For deeper dive the fundamental problems with hydrogen powered vehicles and why some politicians and legacy automotive makers continue flogging this dead horse read my article The madness of Big Auto’s push for hydrogen-powered cars.
Daniel Bleakley is a clean technology researcher and advocate with a background in engineering and business. He has a strong interest in electric vehicles, renewable energy, manufacturing and public policy.