Hydrogen cars: Future or fiction?

When the horse and cart gave way to the motor car early in the 20th Century, it represented the biggest shift in personal transport the world had ever known.

OK, so it resulted in a sharp decline of cheap organic fertilizer but while the odd rhubarb patch suffered as horses were used less and less, the end result ushered in a new era of freedom and the ability to go further, faster.

With the exception of flying cars, which could be decades away, we may never see such a dramatic change to personal transport in our lifetimes. But Toyota is steadfast in its belief that the switch from fossil fuels to hydrogen fuel will help shape a vastly different future that's less harmful to the planet and its denizens.

The chicken or the egg?
We recently spent some time evaluating the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell car in Australia to try to better understand the impact the widespread adoption of hydrogen cars could have not only on the planet but also society.

Mirai, which means "future" in Japanese, emits only water. Rapid refuelling and zero CO2 emissions are the big drawcards for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCEVs).

There's also a big drawback… finding the hydrogen to fuel them. In Australia it it's nigh impossible.

But Toyota reckons it's only a matter of time before that changes, and it's quietly confident that private and then public hydrogen fuelling stations will crop up over the next few decades.

Several other car-makers are injecting lots of cash into hydrogen FCEV development, including most major Japanese and Korean brands, not to mention the Europeans.

To spur on hydrogen refuelling infrastructure requires hydrogen fuel-cell cars to gain popularity, and for that to happen they must be relatively affordable and exciting enough to capture the car-buying public's imagination. Love it or hate it, the Mirai's design is certainly distinctive.

In the USA the Toyota Mirai costs $57,000. Chuck in a $7000 government incentive and zero-emission motoring begins to look appealing for a wider demographic of buyers.

Toyota has sold around 1500 Mirai cars in the year since its release and reckons 30,000 of them will be on the road by 2020.

And what about the land Down Under?

"There are no plans to offer the car in Australia ahead of the development of an appropriate hydrogen-refuelling infrastructure," says Toyota. That settles that, then.

It's an incredibly tough sell getting hydrogen fuel-cell cars rolling in Australia. You need ultra-cool, must-have products to attract consumer interest and agitate for infrastructure development.

And in a classic case of the old chicken or the egg parable, which also applies to EVs, FCEVs and refuelling infrastructure can't exist without each other, so one must come first.

It's a massive challenge but Toyota Australia is attempting to at least get the ball rolling by importing three Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which will stay Down Under until mid-2019, to stimulate interest in the technology.

Fill her up!
Although Australia produces hydrogen – for medical equipment as one example – there's technically only one hydrogen vehicle filling station in the country, and it's owned by Korean giant Hyundai.

So when Toyota Australia decided to lease three hydrogen cars to demonstrate its Mirai triumvirate nationally, it needed a way to refuel the cars and its Korean arch-rival was hardly going to be willing to help.

Toyota then plumped up an estimated $1 million on a high-tech refuelling truck that can follow the cars around (and transport them!) and showcase how simple it is to refuel a hydrogen fuel-cell car.

Indeed, filling up the Mirai is easy. In fact, it's no different to filling up with petrol. You take the filler nozzle, which features an infra-red alignment system to create a perfect seal, jam it into the same place you would find the fuel cap on a petrol car and squeeze the trigger. Job done.

It's not scary, it's not different, and no one got immolated.

And really, that's the only tangible difference between a Toyota Mirai and Tesla Model S – the way they refuel.

Michael Elias, Toyota Australia's corporate product planning manager, put it this way: "The main difference between a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle and an electric vehicle is that the hydrogen vehicle uses a fuel-cell stack that generates its own electricity on board, on demand.

"Both vehicles are powered by the same electric motors, but the electric vehicle has a large, heavy battery pack that needs to be recharged to store the electricity, rather than generating it."

The Tesla Model S takes between 30 minutes and one hour to recharge at a fast-charge point to travel up to 450km, while the Toyota Mirai takes between three and five minutes to fill up its 5kg tank, which is good for a claimed 550km cruise.

Toyota reckons it costs around $60 to fill up. Filling up an EV like the Tesla costs less than $10.

Both cars are propelled by electric motors, they drive similarly with rapid acceleration, they're quiet and luxurious and, yes, too expensive to find mainstream appeal at present.

Mirai magic
After fiddling with the refuelling truck and snooping around inside the Mirai which, apart from its sci-fi interior décor, is not that different to a Toyota Camry, it was time to drive the car.

Toyota, the world's largest car-maker, launched the Mirai hydrogen car in Japan in 2015. I drove it back then and it raised eyebrows… Partly for its peculiar (read: repulsive) design but mostly due to its impressive, seamless operation and opulent interior. Check our full review for a comprehensive overseas road test of the Mirai.

Now we've driven it in Australia and after a closer inspection of its functionality and refuelling system, in principle hydrogen would appear to be viable energy option for the future and one that could be suited to the longer distances Aussies travel.

Cruising around the industrial suburbs that skirt Melbourne, the Mirai is effortless to drive. Jump onto the freeway and it gets up to 100km/h quicksmart, and with a 180km/h top speed overtaking isn't a problem.

It's as easy to drive than a tiny city runabout. You never have to change gear and apart from slightly touchy brakes and more immediate acceleration, it operates almost identically to any other modern car.

There's probably one too many LCD screens but all the controls are common to regular cars, and it comes with eight airbags, blind spot warning, autonomous emergency braking and the like.

The Mirai is powered by a single electric motor that pumps out 113kW and 335Nm -- similar to a four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine and just as eager. In operation it's no different to a regular EV in that electricity powers the motor that drives the wheels, and there's instant torque on tap.

It does feature a battery to "smooth out" the flow of energy to the motor, but it's not for storage like in a Nissan LEAF for instance. When hydrogen in the car's 5kg twin tanks mixes with oxygen, electrons are released which create electricity.

There were some hydrogen-fuelled cars that burned hydrogen in a regular combustion engine, such as BMW's 7 Series and, from 2009, Mazda's specially modified RX-8 sports car, but this method hasn't taken off.

And the kicker here is that by simply increasing the pressure in the tanks, you can increase range – in theory. The fuel goes into these Mirai's at 700 bar.

Now I'm no chemistry expert, but I drove it and it works. It's cool to pull up to a car park, walk around the back of the car and see a small puddle of water as the only emission.

Maybe owners could even capture the water and use it on their vegie patches during summer?

Didn't work for EVs, why will it work now?
Good question, headline bot. The simple answer is it probably won't -- definitely not in the short-term and probably not in the mid-term.

Battery-electric vehicles are yet to capture the imagination of buyers in Australia, with almost every attempt to market them profitably failing.
The Holden Volt? Dead. Nissan LEAF? Terminally ill. Tesla Model S? Prohibitively expensive.

There's talk that the smaller, more affordable new Tesla Model 3 will be a game-changer, but I'll believe it when I see it – at a price that most buyers can afford.

EVs have been successful in regions where governments have offered tax cuts or subsidies for low and zero emission vehicles, such as Norway, California and China.

But in Australia, where some politicians think wind farms are "ugly" and CO2 is good for trees, the chances of EV subsidies within the present political environment are slimmer than Kate Moss circa 2007.

Because of this and purchase price being a primary factor for many consumers, even hybrid cars have struggled to get a foothold Down Under, where Toyota's own petrol-electric icon, the Prius, is disregarded by almost everyone except taxi fleets.

Despite all these headwinds – and the likelihood that FCEVs will take far longer than traditional EVs to gain traction -- Toyota is pushing its hydrogen barrow, figuratively and literally, with gusto.

How can something so advanced with zero support infrastructure be taken seriously?

By bringing a trio of Mirais to Australia, Toyota hopes to win over "key stakeholders" who are currently doing exactly what we did: evaluate the technology, drive the cars and fiddle with all the buttons.

Toyota believes that if big fleet buyers, state governments, major universities and organisations like the CSIRO express an interest, the bricks and mortar infrastructure will flow.

In Germany, the USA and Europe, hydrogen fuel pumps exist within some regular petrol stations but adding a hydrogen fuel pump a BP outlet adds up to $2 million dollars, with the high-pressure underground tank being the most expensive component.

Despite the odds being stacked heavily against him, Toyota Australia's fuel-cell project sponsor and senior executive adviser to the board, Bernie O'Connor, says the company's hydrogen strategy is long-term but hopes the arrival of its high-tech hydrogen refuelling truck and its Mirai fleet will "fast-track" the infrastructure needed to sell the cars profitably in Australia.

"Our local vision is that, as a first step, government departments and businesses running back-to-base fleets will be able to arrange appropriate refuelling. In parallel, we see great merit in the introduction of strategically placed refuellers in our larger cities," he said.

But who is going to pay for it? Return on investment simply doesn't exist and probably won't for decades. And countless Australian governments have shown zero interest in encouraging clean car technology.

Reality check: There is no silver bullet
Australia is being left behind as the rest of the world gets serious about EVs and FCEVs. The reasons are varied, from cheap fuel, to a lack of government subsidies, to the technology being expensive, not to mention our requirement to travel longer distances.

What Toyota has shown us with the Mirai and its mobile fuelling truck is next-generation stuff. Its super cool but it's hard to get excited about because, realistically, until petrol prices spike to consistently high levels or a CO2 emissions tax is imposed on drivers, as it has been in Europe, it's a long way off.

Nevertheless, Toyota Australia's manager for government affairs and environment, Andy Willis, remains passionate about the Mirai and its potential for the Australian market.

"We still see this as the future," he insisted. "Globally Toyota has a 2050 target to have production vehicle emissions reduced by 90 per cent. We do have the technologies to do so but we need to roll them out."

Kudos to Toyota for having a red-hot go and I hope hybrids, EVs and FCEVs become significantly more popular in both Australia and globally in the near future. After all, the future of our kids and future generations depends on lower CO2 emissions.

It took almost three decades between 1910 and 1940 (helped by the great depression) for the world to fully transition from horse and cart transport to combustion engine cars.

Perhaps it will be a case of history repeating when it comes to EVs and FCEVs.