At the recent J. P. Morgan Auto Conference in New York City, Toyota’s Bob Carter, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations gave a speech highlighting the future of hydrogen cars.
Carter calls hydrogen fuel cell cars the NEXT BIG THING in automotive technology. And Toyota’s newest fuel cell vehicle, speculated to be called the Mirai, will go on sale in California the summer of 2015.
The FCV has a range of around 300 miles and can be refueled in about 3 minutes. Toyota is also working with First Element Energy and Linde on the operation and maintenance of hydrogen fueling stations in California.
What about the cost of hydrogen fuel?
Bob Carter says, “Well, according to Department of Energy estimates, the cost of hydrogen fuel will initially be higher than gasoline…but longer term…it will come down and be more economical.
“Based on those numbers, we estimate that to fill our fuel cell sedan to go 300 miles initially will cost about $50 and then go down to about $30.”
The numbers are based on the fuel tank holding 5kg of compressed hydrogen gas and the FCV averaging around 60 miles per gallon equivalent.
Thank you for this nice article – Currently hydrogen may be expensive, but hydrogen can be produced from renewables and water. This should help in reducing the cost of transporting and delivering hydrogen at station. hydrogen could be produced onsite using the grid to transport electricity instead of using reformation of natural gas.