Although it isn't scheduled to be part of the ride&drive area, the Mirai is set to be on display at the 2015 AltCar Expo in Santa Monica in mid-September. The Chevy Bolt concept car will apparently be on display as well. Even if the Mirai isn't available to drive, there will be other fuel cell cars available. I expect the 2016 Volt may be available by then for test drives around the downtown area as well. This is an excellent and free event put on every year by the City of Santa Monica. Highly recommended. Here is the tentative vehicle list but I've seen new cars added at the last minute in previous years so check back again in September before the event on the 18th and 19th: AltCar Expo
you mean as in 'beyond thunderdome'? Yeah that's a nice cliche - but we'll see. Once upon a time "the future has arrived" - because we created jet packs - and flying cars, and we even walked on the moon. Decades later, we gave up on the space shuttle & other so-called "future has arrived" type things. Too impractical & old they said. But Elon Musk, who calls hydrogen cars 'BS' , ironically seems to be a BIGGER believer in space tech than NASA ... & so he creates 'space X' . Even more ironic imo, is that space travel needs hydrogen tech - so his companies certainty ought to know whether or not what types of hydrogen tech is BS ... &/or whether plugin's make more sense. So from the actual working and practical & profitability "proof" of plug-in's - YES - the future has arrived!
TINA TURNER LYRICS - We Don't Need Another Hero Nasa believes in space exploration, but the congress doesn't give them the money. SpaceX using a lot of NASA of knowledge (that's how they can keep so much secret, to keep it from the Chinese. But seriously Toyota has made public their patents so Tesla and everyone else knows what they have. Will we make the same mistake as PNGV and Freedom Car and look for expensive solutions, another moon shot, another hero? Or is there life beyond the promise of high pressure hydrogen fuel cells? Perhaps methanol or plug-ins. Beyond that big pushed program. Toyota is trying to be the high pressure hygrogen hero. I'm sure the smart people at toyota know what musk knows. Still there are promises of breakthroughs. No reason to not do the R&D, but just because you can build it doesn't mean you should. We are not in the rules of thunderdome outside of the peoples republic of california. There is no rule two men enter and 1 man leaves. Let's do a little experminent you know 10,000 fuel cell cars. And see if they can, this time be only a decade away. One time they may be right. In the mean time tesla had to do things a lot of things on the cheap, just like mad max. The mirai has splashy budget. Tesla has a lot of copiers. mirai is kind of a copy, although made cheaper of the clarity, which of course proved you could do it, but it was too expensive to do many of them, and not many really want it. In 10 years will a lot of people want fcv? I doubt it, but who knows. That is why toyota is starting to say maybe it will take 100 years. Time for fuel cell activists to stop saying two men enter one man leaves, it would certainly be the fuel cells that would leave and lose government support. Every year fcv are shown to be clearly further behind.
Let's see how many FCVs are sold in 5 years time. BEVs must number hundreds of thousands in the US and probably that in the EU too. Despite the big push BEVs and massive increase in sales, they still account for less than 1% of car sales after 5 years. Even if hydrogen triples that, it's still never ever going to be viable to open the correct number of hydrogen filling stations to be viable. It'll cost $billions and $billions to build AND maintain them and supply the fuel, all for a small number of owners to use. Good luck on that. I'll continue to fill up my Leaf from home or anywhere else with an electric supply, or one of the hundreds of rapid chargers about. Just think how many of those could be installed with the $billions spent on the hydrogen infrastucture. Musk is the future. Oil (and Big Oil who are ultimately behind hydrogen- gotta keep selling us something) is the past. They're clinging on like steam power did in the UK in the 1930's. I just can't see a 10 or 15 year old high pressure hydrogen car being a viable or safe prospect
Ya'll are preaching to (some of) the choir here. The rest have yet to join as they're mesmerized by the first element on the periodic table. Wouldn't buy a Leaf owing to its range and subsequent depreciation, but the future looks bright(er than it does for H2).
I would go to the test drive event had I gotten an invite, but I don't really care to fill out the questionnaire knowing I will not be buying the car. It would be cool to at least see what it's all about first hand in order to have a fully informed opinion about it.
I went to the Berkeley, California Mirai drive event this morning. I was impressed with the car in general although I think Toyota should make it available in an all electric plug in model too. I think the lack of hydrogen filling infrastructure is what will hold most people back from even considering this car.
I disagree, at least for buyers in LA and Orange County, I think there will be enough of an infrastructure to make most buyers content.
FWIW, CA Fuel-Cell Car Drivers Say Hydrogen Fuel Unavailable, Stations Don't Work (UPDATED) states that many such stations down there are problematic. FWIW, I received an email invite from Toyota Sunnyvale for a Mirai ride and drive event on 8/14 from 3 to 8 pm that I must RSVP to attend.
This may be the case now, but the entire infustructure is being redone. You will be buying your hydrogen at gas stations, hydrogen pumps will be along side unleaded and diesel fuel pumps. This was explained at the Miria event.
By when? And do you believe them? How many sites? How many pumps at each site? I've heard figures like these before (from CA Fuel-Cell Car Drivers Say Hydrogen Fuel Unavailable, Stations Don't Work (UPDATED)): "Last year, the state of California committed $100 million over five years to building 100 hydrogen fueling stations in the state by 2020, in partnership with Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda, and private companies like First Element Fuel as well". The graph at A California Road Map | California Fuel Cell Partnership doesn't look too good either. You've seen Toyota Alt Fuel Manager: Hydrogen Infrastructure Lagging, Today's Stations Not "Mirai-friendly", right?
Isn't that what happens when you get loads of free Government money chucked your way? It's what happened in Communist countries and still goes on in France. Why should they bother doing even a half arsed job if they're still going to get paid and there's more work waiting.
If they are limited to a small area, what is the advantage of a 312 mile range with fast refueling? Eventually, maybe, or by the time fuel cells get to the point of being sold at a reasonable price for a profit, they could be running on natural gas or methanol.
