Invitation to test drive the Toyota Mirai fuel cell vehicle

tom · Aug 15, 2015

I am going to test drive the Toyota Mirai fuel cell vehicle today in Palo Alto. They will do a presentation, then a test drive. Not sure how I got onto their invite list.

Depending on how I feel, I may ask them some difficult questions.

Obviously there are no fueling stations so I will not ask such question.

One question I do want to ask is this:

All things accounted for, how clean is it to drive a fuel cell vehicle vs. a pure battery powered electric vehicle?

Figuring out the carbon footprint for the pure electric vehicle is straight forward, the answer is how electricity is generated in your state or in your country.

So, the question is: What is the total carbon footprint of hydrogen generation, transportation, and storage?

That is, what is the carbon footprint of the entire cycle of operating a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle vs. a pure electric vehicle?

I don't expect a straight forward, or honest, answer at this Toyota Mirai event.

If anyone can point us to a good article on this topic it would be very much appreciated.

phototrek · Aug 15, 2015

What is the carbon footprint of the production of your purely electric car's battery?

Not so straightforward after all I think.

tom · Aug 15, 2015

Good point photo. I would like to see a good article on the subject, taking into account of everything (production of batteries, fuel cells, mining of all the materials, production of hydrogen, etc). Carbon footprint & total costs (of fuel cell vs. pure electric cars)