Methanol fuel cell

Another term you can search for is Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). They are actually commonly used on boats to convert gas to electricity to power electronics. And huge ones are used by server companies to convert natural gas to electricity as an alternative to a backup generator. Google uses them with some of its buildings.

Nissan had an experimental van that used an SOFC that could be powered by Ethanol. Since Brazil has 100% Ethanol gas stations, they drove it around Brazil, filling it up like a gasoline car. Their experiment ended a few years ago and we haven't heard anything since. Their former and now exiled CEO Ghosn was pushing the idea, which may be why we don't hear anything about them anymore. I also heard that the fuel cell didn't provide much power.

I did read about one that does provide a lot of power, a $455k methanol fuel cell supercar.

 

The Nissan fuel cell was 5 to 10 kW, but it wasn't the primary energy source to move the van. That was a 20kWh or larger battery. The fuel cell would mostly run at a constant rate to charge that battery.

Compared to a fuel cell heavy design, like in the Mirai and most other FCEVs, there are advantages to this small fuel cell design. It greatly reduces the cost of the fuel cell itself, which is currently the biggest cost at this point. With a SOFC, it could allow quicker warm up of the fuel cell. Adding a plug is easy, which would reduce the wear and tear on the fuel cell, reduce the need to have stations of a new fuel on every corner before be able to sell the cars.

In Nissan's case, it reduced costs because they were just adding the fuel cell to a leaf drive train and battery. That van was the commercial BEV version that was already available. The fuel cell ran on aqueous ethanol. For the test in Brazil, they had to add water.

The fuel cell in the OP isn't a solid oxide one though. It is a PEM one like the Mirai, with an onboard reformer for methanol. That requires high temperatures, but lower than what SOFCs run at.
Reformed methanol fuel cell - Wikipedia