Toyota Mirai Ii

[Riitta Palazzo]

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The next day, August 24, 2021, consisted of more local driving loops, where they pushed through 372 more miles of morning and afternoon rush hour traffic on the San Diego freeway between Los Angeles and Orange County until the Mirai had no more hydrogen left and coasted into Toyota Motor North America Research and Development with a grand total of 845 miles driven, as witnessed by Empric.

By the end of the trip, the Mirai consumed a total of 5.65kg of hydrogen and passed a total of 12 hydrogen stations along the drive routes without refueling. The Mirai was driven mainly during rush hour traffic in temperatures between 65 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit. It emitted zero pounds of CO2, where a standard internal combustion engine vehicle would have emitted about 664 lbs. of CO2 over the same distance.

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.

Toyota has created a tremendous value chain and directly employs more than 36,000 in the U.S. The company has contributed world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 30 million cars and trucks at our 9 manufacturing plants, 10 including our joint venture in Alabama that begins production in 2021.

To help inspire the next generation for a career in STEM-based fields, including mobility, Toyota launched its virtual education hub at www.tourtoyota.com with an immersive experience and chance to visit many of our U.S. manufacturing facilities. The hub also includes a series of free STEM-based lessons and curriculum through Toyota USA Foundation partners, virtual field trips and more. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

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First a little history on myself, I'm an EVangelist & GreenPreneur. I started my Green Journey by selling a BMW 540i v8 and purchasing a 2010 Toyota Prius with the goal to burn less gas; in 2006 I installed a SunPower 4 kW solar system to power our home. Additionally, we performed many green retrofits such as tankless water heating, dual pane windows, insulation, and for that effort, won the first Green Home Award from the City of Huntington Beach, CA in 2008.

Back in 2009, I read about GM's Project Driveway and how GM was looking for volunteers to test drive, provide weekly reports & blog about one's experience with their Equinox Fuel Cell converted vehicle. As you might imagine, I was very excited about this opportunity, immediately signed up, and after a few months of waiting, went through orientation and was handed the keys. Back then, there were very few H2 fueling stations in Southern California and one of the key criteria for receiving the Fuel Cell test vehicle was you lived close to one of them. Fortunately for me, my round trip commute took me by the UCI H2 station run by Air Products, tucked away far from view to the public. The number of H2 stations, as you will learn, is key to growth and adoption.

To cut this section short, my experience with the GM Fuel Cell Equinox was very favorable. The mid-size SUV Equinox was very nice, really quiet, and extremely fast. I surprised more than a few sports cars as I beat them off the line when flooring the accelerator. The propulsion system was by an electric motor, powered by a battery pack, which was replenished by a Fuel Cell stack. The "exhaust" was H20, I was amazed and took the opportunity to talk about it every chance I got. You could say I was sold by FCEV technology and would be a proponent for many years. Alas, after 6 months, I had to hand the keys back and return to my slow, noisy, and clunky Toyota Prius.

In 2009 I saw the first prototype of the Chevy Volt, Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) and had to have one. EREVs differ from Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), which has two "motors", with the main propulsion being an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), the Volt had a much larger 16 kWh battery and the main propulsion was electric like a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV). Chevy advertised that the Volt could go 35 miles on pure battery before the ICE generator would kick on to maintain the battery level for long-range trips. As soon as I could place an order, I did and was one of the first people in CA to get the Gen 1 Volt and dump the Toyota Prius.

Wow, what a difference, Chevy, in my opinion, had solved all the problems I had with the Prius. It was sporty, accelerated like a BEV, was very comfortable with an upgraded interior, and was fun to drive. I was able to get about 48 miles on the battery, and for the duration of the time I used the Volt for commuting, I drove it on battery only!!! The Volt was the first vehicle I owned where there were APIs to get data from the car, and I soon joined Volt Stats to compare my driving with thousands of others. Ironically, there are a lot of obsessive-compulsive people there. In fact, one driver drove the Volt 100% on battery for 10,713 miles!!! Chevy designers anticipated this behavior and actually would force the ICE engine on every once in a while to lube the engine and keep the gas fresh, wow!

Side Note: Do you see the similarity between the GM FCEV Equinox and the Chevy Volt? I didn't until I recently meet Ulrich Eberle, Ph.D. and he showed me this presentation. Both platforms' main propulsion is electric motors supported by a generator. The Equinox had a Fuel Cell stack and the Volt had a small ICE. The more you know!!

I worked at Neudesic, LLC in Irvine CA, our CEO, Parsa Rohani, bought a Signature Edition Tesla Model S. Parsa was the first person I knew to get a no-compromise BEV. Before Tesla, the best BEV you could get was a Nissan LEAF with a 75-mile range. We all lined up to take a ride in this work of art designed by Tesla's Franz von Holzhausen. It was spacious, looked beautiful, and was QUICK, quicker than a majority of sports cars I have driven or taken rides in.

After an extensive southwest National Park road trip in 2017, we traded our Tesla Model S for a Model X 100D SUV and have been road tripping ever since. This trip, which combined Tesla SuperChargers, as well as Level 2 (L2) chargers, convinced me we could go anywhere with a Tesla. Follow @ILuvAmp on all Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for our adventures.

One of the few dealerships in Southern California that can sell and service a Mirai, and was semi-close to us, was Tustin Toyota. In retrospect, this should have been my first Red Light. Living in Huntington Beach at the time, we had a Toyota dealership just a few miles from our house, but to test drive a Mirai we had to drive 16 miles to Tustin. We called and made an appointment with "Mirai Specialist," second Red Light. We heard the sales pitch about the Mirai, as well as how the exhaust was just H2O that you could drink if you wanted to. We learned that a lease on a Mirai would be reduced due to the Federal Tax credit of $7,500, we would get a rebate from California of $9,500, we would get two weeks per year of the lease to rent another Toyota for free (for road-trips), and in addition, Toyota was going to give us $15,000 of free H2 fuel!!! "Wow, how can anyone turn this down?" we asked ourselves. In addition, the Mirai Specialist said we would be part of the Mirai Trailblazer Program, sounds cool, right? FYI, if you are counting, this is the third "Red Light." Well, as you probably know by now, we drove away with one that day.

For a few short months, the Mirai was a very nice daily driver. My daughter zipped up and back in the carpool lane of the 605 freeway, all while the fuel was free!! But that positive experience was short-lived.

Fast forward to the summer of 2018, when the Hydrogen World collapsed. You might not know, but there have been HUGE H2 shortages since 2018. The headlines read: "The biggest challenge to driving a fuel-cell car is finding fuel," and the drivers of fuel-cell models from Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai, found themselves spending hours, and driving many miles out of their way, to chase down an H2 station that had any.

During this nightmare, my daughter needed a reliable mode of transportation, so she leased a Hyundai gas SUV! You are probably asking, "What happened to the Mirai?" Well, it has been sitting in our garage. This is all while we continue to make lease payments, it is registered as non-operational, and us having to pay minimal insurance to satisfy the lease requirements, and the 12-volt battery is now dead.

As you can tell, back in 2009 I was all in on FCEV, but in the past 12 years, in the United States at least, there has been very little infrastructure build-out. This is the "nail in the coffin" for all the R&D that Honda, Toyota, Hunyadi, GM, BMW, MBZ, and others have invested.

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