Driving a hydrogen car – Range, refueling and costs in practice
Hydrogen cars have been driving around for many years. Just like battery-electric cars, they do not emit any harmful substances, making them a sustainable alternative to cars that run on fossil fuels. Toyota has been working on this technology since the 1990s and was one of the first car manufacturers to embrace hydrogen. In 2015, the manufacturer introduced the first Mirai, a new version of which has recently been released. Apart from the Mirai, the only other hydrogen car in the Netherlands and Belgium is the Hyundai Nexo. A hydrogen car is an electric car, but in use it corresponds more to what we are used to now. After all, you can ‘just’ refuel. Apart from that similarity, there are also major differences with petrol and diesel cars. In the video below we discuss how a hydrogen car works,
Although refueling, which resembles LPG, is an important similarity with a car with a combustion engine, the other differences are large. After all, the fuel is a gas that is stored under high pressure (700 bar) in three cylindrical gas tanks that are housed in different places in the car. By combining hydrogen gas in the fuel cell with oxygen, which is drawn in from the outside air through the front, electrical energy and water are created. The energy is temporarily stored in a battery and used to drive the wheels. The construction requires much more complex parts than a ‘traditional’ electric car and the efficiency of driving on hydrogen is also much lower (and therefore more expensive).
To fuel
The first hydrogen filling station was opened in 2014, in Rhoon under Rotterdam. At the time, the then State Secretary stated that there would be at least twenty filling stations in the Netherlands by 2020. In 2021, however, there are only seven left. Belgium has three. So growth is very slow and in any case slower than expected. Nevertheless, there is now a promise that fourteen filling stations must be opened in the Netherlands by the end of this year. In 2025 there should be 50 and in 2030 about 210. Then there will be a nationwide network, although that number is still only a fraction of the 4100 current filling stations and 2400 fast chargers that the Netherlands now has. It does not seem to be due to the subsidy: it amounts to about 1.3 million euros per filling station. The use of hydrogen cars is also
Who to a maplooks at the hydrogen filling stations, sees that there are four in the Randstad. There are also stations in Arnhem, Helmond and Delfzijl. Anyone who currently drives a hydrogen car should therefore take into account that detours often have to be made in order to refuel. For example, our test route in Raamsdonksveer (North Brabant) did not start with a full tank and we had to detour to Friesland via a petrol station in Rotterdam to make sure that we could return via a route without a petrol station. The WLTP range of the Mirai is an impressive 400 miles, but in practice it’s a lot smaller – especially if you do a lot of highway driving. Moreover, filling the tank completely is not possible due to the high pressure, so that the tank filling varies somewhat. After two different fill-ups, the number of kilometers to be driven was 459 and 485 km respectively. On average, a kilo of hydrogen is good for about 100 km of range, but we drove a little more economically on average because we never drove faster than 100 km and also used many country roads. Based on our practical range, we count on about 460 to 550 km if you were to drive the tank completely empty.
Despite the range, refueling is currently a crucial factor to consider. That makes a hydrogen car not really attractive, unless you live or work near a hydrogen filling station. To tackle this problem, Toyota can provide a slow-fill filling station, which could be of interest to companies with a dozen or so cars in their fleet. Refueling is therefore much slower and takes more than an hour (based on 4 kg / hour). The costs for such a gas station amount to 200,000 euros and this is included in the lease amount. Toyota also has an optional refueling service where it can fill up the car on request, but this is considerably more expensive than refueling yourself.
What does hydrogen fuel actually cost? A kilo of hydrogen costs about 10 euros. There is currently no excise duty charged, but VAT is charged. In total we then arrive at € 12.10 per kg. Assuming roughly 100 km of range per kg, a fully full tank would amount to 68 euros, which amounts to just over 12 cents per kilometer. All in all, it is on average somewhat more expensive and in some cases comparable to the cost of driving on petrol. In all cases, it is considerably more expensive than battery-electric driving, because that costs about 3 cents per kilometer if you can charge at home and 6 to 7 cents per kilometer if you are at a public charging station. The price difference has to do with both the production of hydrogen and energy efficiency – see the video for this.
Fuel cell, gas tanks and space
Compared to the old model from 2015, Toyota uses a different platform for the new version of its hydrogen car, namely that of the Lexus LS and LE (GA-L). This is therefore not a design specifically for hydrogen cars, but a shortened version of a Lexus. Due to this different platform, the hydrogen tanks also had to be placed in a different way. The fuel cell was originally under the front seats, but now under the hood. As a result, there is room in the interior to fit a large front-to-rear gas tank and a second one sideways under the rear seat. A third – smaller – tank has been added under the luggage compartment to achieve a longer range.
The three gas tanks affect the space for passengers and luggage. As a driver or co-driver, you are spacious and comfortable all around. If you are tall, your hair may touch the ceiling, although that seems to be better in the variant without a glass roof. In the back, space is quite tight, both for the legs and for the head. There is a notch in the ceiling so you can sit quite comfortably, but it feels claustrophobic and you can still hit the ceiling with a hard braking action. This is mainly due to the sporty sloping roofline, but also because the rear seat could not be lowered because there is a gas tank underneath. The previous Mirai had room for four people, two of them in the back. This new Mirai has three seats in the back, but the middle seat is not suitable for an adult. A wide center tunnel runs here with the gas tank running from front to back, so you can’t lose your legs. So there is at most room for a small child or baby as a fifth passenger. The luggage space is also not really left, with a volume of 278 liters. That is remarkably small for a car that is almost five meters long and 1.90 meters wide. In addition to the gas tanks, this also has to do with the aerodynamic design. An alternative that can offer more space is the Hyundai Nexo FCEV suv. In addition to the gas tanks, this also has to do with the aerodynamic design. An alternative that can offer more space is the Hyundai Nexo FCEV suv. In addition to the gas tanks, this also has to do with the aerodynamic design. An alternative that can offer more space is the Hyundai Nexo FCEV suv.
Present and future
There will certainly be further improvements for hydrogen-powered cars in the future. Think of a more efficient fuel cell, more (and hopefully cheaper) sustainable generation, an optimized design to better conceal the gas tanks, and of course more filling stations. Nevertheless, hydrogen cars have been driving around since 2001 and the improvements have not been very great so far. This is largely because solving bottlenecks comes up against the laws of nature. For example, energy efficiency lags behind because energy is ‘lost’ during the production, distribution, compression and use of hydrogen, until roughly a third remains. Another bottleneck is the production of green hydrogen based on electrolysis using sustainable energy from the sun and wind. Overcapacity of sustainable electricity is (still) scarce, so production is expensive. Most hydrogen is currently produced by means ofsteam reforming of methane (natural gas), which releases CO2 . For a kilo of green hydrogen through electrolysis, 52 to 64 kWh of electrical energy is needed, with which you can then drive 100 km. A battery-electric car uses that energy at least three times as far.
Toyota Mirai 2021 specifications
| Platform | GA-L (Lexus LS/LE) |
| Tank content / battery | 5.6kg H2 ( 700 bar) / 1.2kWh |
| Reach | 650km wltp (460-550km in practice) |
| Drive / electric motor / torque | Rwd / 182hp (134kW) / 300Nm |
| Acceleration / top speed | 9.2 sec (0-100km/h) / 175km/h |
| Length Width | 4.98m x 1.90m |
| Weight empty / roadworthy | 1800kg / 1975kg |
| Luggage room | 278 litres |
| Starting price / driven version | €65,995 / €76,495 |
Driving on hydrogen
When it comes to passenger cars, hydrogen propulsion has a huge backlog. There are currently around 400 hydrogen cars on the road, compared to almost 200,000 fully electric cars. Charging points are easier and cheaper to realize than new filling stations – and the growth of these has been very disappointing so far.
Driving a hydrogen car is technically perfectly possible and it drives almost like a battery-electric car. The new Toyota Mirai looks good, is quiet, feels luxurious and is very comfortable to drive. But hydrogen does make it complex – see also the earlier background articlethat appeared on Tweakers. Complex because of the necessary components such as the fuel cell and cylindrical gas tanks, the compression, the energy efficiency, the distribution, the maintenance, the costs and of course the availability of filling stations in the Netherlands, Belgium and eventually all of Europe. If you have a company that happens to be located near a refueling location, then hydrogen cars can be an interesting alternative to fossil or battery-electric cars, partly because of the tax benefits. For consumers, however, that moment seems far away.