There are only two things interesting here. First Toyota is putting big bucks into this program. (As is Korea's Hundai.)
The other interesting thing is that in a couple years consumers are going to be treated to a battle royal --not just between electric, natural gas, and gasoline engines--but also hydrogen fuel cell cars. The result will be the most excellent and teachable moment in capitalism's history.
All three (plus natural gas) will steadily drive the cost of transportation down.
This will be totally great and result in a great explosion of wealth around the world
And you can have any color you want including 'black'.
The concept of hydrogen being an economic fuel source is just silly. Only by taking money from others not using the fuel can it be competitively priced.
Toyota’s going all in for fuel cells (which Elon Musk of Tesla calls “fool cells,” but then Teslas are battery-driven).
The man behind Toyota’s move is CEO Akio Toyoda, one of the family, who sees fuel cells as the wave of the future.
Toyota can afford it; they make a profit of about $18 billion a year, more than Ford, GM, and Honda combined.
Toyota’s Mirai fuel cell car can be refueled in less than 5 minutes with supercooled hydrogen for $45 (if you can find a filling station! — currently 13 research stations, 9 public stations, and 18 in the works in CA), versus hours to recharge a battery car. The fuel tank can withstand a bullet fired at it.
It is not difficult to obtain good performance from a new fuel cell. The problem is that the catalytic electrodes degrade and fail so that the life of the fuel cell is short. Let them run the fuel-cell for 50,000 miles and then test it in the car. That is the real test.
But these are not zero emission vehicles !! they emit Dihydrogen monoxide which is a known killer and proven greenhouse gas.
Not to mention the Carbon dioxide used to compress the hydrogen used to power these vehicles....
Zero emission....yeah, right.
And drive the final nails in the Arab/islamic coffin.