Nitin Gadkari's Toyota Mirai hydrogen car technology decoded

As a part of a pilot project being conducted by International Center for Automotive Technology (ICAT) along with

Toyota

Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, India's first hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicle was launched - the Toyota Mirai. Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was the one to launch the pilot project in the country, and also said that he will start using the

Toyota Mirai

himself.

On Wednesday, Nitin Gadkari arrived at the parliament in a Toyota

Mirai FCEV

for the first time. Let's decode how the Toyota

Mirai

actually works. At the core of Mirai, hydrogen from the fuel tank and air entering from the intake grille meet in the Fuel Cell Stack. There, a chemical reaction involving the oxygen found naturally in the air and hydrogen react with each other and create electricity, which thereby powers the Mirai.

Moreover, energy is captured in a battery every time the car brakes or slows down, which contributes to even better fuel economy. The only residue is water that comes out of the sedan's tailpipe, making the Toyota Mirai a zero emission vehicle. Toyota calls it the 'Toyota Fuel Cell System', or TFCS.

Refuelling Mirai

is similar to how we refuel petrol or diesel vehicles. There’s a pump and a nozzle, and as you pump in the hydrogen, it travels to the car's carbon-fiber-reinforced fuel tanks where it’s stored.

The Mirai has three hydrogen tanks, with a total capacity of 5.6 kg and a maximum filling pressure of 87.5 MPa. The car takes around five minutes to fuel up, and can provide a total range of around 402 miles or 647 km as per the EPA test cycle. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) confirmed that it will be supplying hydrogen for the Toyota Mirai pilot project in India.

Toyota claims that Mirai’s hydrogen fuel tanks have been rigorously tested and proven to meet Global Technical Regulation No. 13. Its multi-patented, carbon-fiber-wrapped, polymer-lined fuel tanks absorb five times the crash energy of steel. In a high-speed collision, sensors are designed to stop the flow of hydrogen and any leaked hydrogen will rapidly escape safely back into the atmosphere, thus making the Toyota Mirai a safe alternative to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.

The Mirai gets a permanent magnet AC synchronous electric motor that puts out 182 PS of maximum power, along with 407 Nm of peak torque, and powers the rear wheels. It comes equipped with a 310.8V lithium-ion battery pack with a capacity of 1.24 kWh. The Toyota Mirai can sprint from 0 to 60 mph (96 kmph) in just 9.2 seconds.
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