Toyota Sends Hydrogen Stations to Dealers for Sold-Out Mirai

So let me get this straight, someone who lives say in Pasadena needs to drive how many miles every week to fill up roundtrip? How about in the San Fernando Valley?

 

A lot, because Toyota is telling us we want to drive out of our way to go to a gas station and fill er' up like we've always done. And pay more while we're at it with hydrogen. And in this case, only get about half a tank filled at best.

Ignore those longer ranged battery electric vehicles coming out, and especially those plug-in hybrids which can be charged up in your garage, or filled up at any of the hundreds of gas stations in your area. They're simply not viable, according to Toyota.

It probably would've cost them less to just fund the building of hydrogen stations themselves. Certainly would've avoided the PR nightmare this is becoming due to the lack of working stations that can refill the Mirai.

 

Bad decisions always end up having a "PR nightmare" at some point. The when and where of "this isn't working out as planned" might be manipulated, but the pure physics of FCV infrastructure and inefficiencies compared to EV superiority are unavoidable.

 

The mirai is not ready for comercialization, it is ready for demonstration. If toyota had built the hydrogen stations themselves they couldn't have blamed the governments of Japan, Germany, and the US for slow roll out. They would have been forced to admit that hydrogen stations are just too expensive to roll out.

No this is all part of the PR strategy. Here their is doubt. If toyota built them their would be no doubt, and most of the hydrogen hype would have to go away.