Before commandeering the Toyota Mirai, I spent quite a bit of time in our long-term Kia Soul EV. Over the course of the first few weeks, I grew accustomed to plugging in a vehicle every day, a task no doubt made easier by some previous experience with electric cars. It’s taking me a little longer to adjust to a hydrogen fuel cell car, but I’m getting there.
Making the transition a little smoother, a new fueling station opened up in Anaheim, California, just 12 miles from where I live. That reduced the distance I had to travel to reach the nearest fueling station by about 5 miles. Meanwhile, San Diego opened its first hydrogen station, making the prospect of a road trip more attractive. At the start of 2017, there were about 25 hydrogen retail stations across California. Many more retail stations are expected to open throughout the year, according to my new best friend, the California Fuel Cell Partnership website.
Filling up the Mirai’s hydrogen tank is somewhat similar to refueling your gasoline-powered car. There are a few notable differences; it’ll typically ask if you’ve been trained to use the equipment, which after replying yes, you insert a form of payment. Instead of your gas and diesel nozzles, you’re usually confronted with two options: H35 and H70. These refer to the different dispensing pressures of 35 MPa and 70 MPa, but you want to select the higher pressure to achieve more range. When you connect the fueling nozzle to the car’s receptacle, you pull up on the nozzle handle to lock it in place. Depending on the station, you might have to pull on a lever before pressing a button to begin fueling.
How long it takes to refuel depends on the station. Often, the pump will pause and then restart, adding time to the clock. Among my fill-ups of more than half a tank, I’ve been averaging about 4.5 minutes. Some fill-ups take longer, and at least one station I have encountered says fueling can take up to 10 minutes. Hydrogen tank capacity is measured by weight (in kilograms), unlike volume measurements used for gasoline-powered cars (gallons). Costs can range around $15 per kg, adding up to one expensive bill. It’s not rare to see a $70 charge on your credit card, but among fill-ups of more than half a tank, I have been averaging $57 so far. The H2 tank’s capacity is 4.95 kg with a usable fill capacity rating of 4.72 kg (in a similar vein to how an electric car battery doesn’t discharge all of its energy). After a fill-up, the Mirai will provide a range estimate based on past driving. The average distance traveled, according to the car’s onboard readout, is just 212 miles. (The EPA-rated range is 312 miles.) Operating the cabin’s heating and cooling system can have a negative impact on range, but I’ll have to investigate the matter further before coming to any conclusions.
The process of refueling has gone smoothly overall, but it’s not quite second nature. We have had just a few issues. Sometimes a station will go offline for maintenance or another reason, so I check the CAFCP website before fueling. During a visit to one station, the machine allowed me to select H35 but not H70, and I had to wait a little bit before the H70 button would activate. One time while refilling at another station, the machine didn’t give me a receipt. I returned to the same pump several days later and inserted the same credit card, and the machine display offered a receipt for that first transaction before continuing with the instruction prompts for the new fill-up.
These minor snafus aside, the Mirai has been a reliable daily driver, and it turns more than a few heads. A few people have approached me asking questions about my ride. One guy in the parking lot even said “cool car,” as if I had pulled up in a Camaro Z/28. Wow, times have changed, haven’t they?
More on our long-term Toyota Mirai here:
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