[ Pacific Auto Review Channel] If you pay attention to the news clips of Winter Olympics earlier, you will find that there are a large number of Toyota cars in the working car, among which Mirai can be regarded as one of the most attractive members of the car fans. As the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car under Toyota , Mirai is also the world's first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car . The first-generation Mirai was launched globally in 2014, and its global sales have exceeded 20,000 units; the second-generation Mirai was launched globally at the end of 2020, and the hydrogen fuel cell technology it carries has further innovated in efficiency and performance.
Nowadays, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that sounds a bit distant is coming to us. On September 26 this year, GAC Toyota announced the formal introduction and sale of the second-generation Toyota Mirai (inquiry on the lowest price | check the configuration) hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. The new car will be sold in the form of imported cars, with a price of 748,000 to 751,000 yuan. This time, a limited edition of 50 vehicles will be delivered at the end of 2022. The first batch of Mirai will be sold by designated GAC Toyota dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, , Foshan .
The editor has always been very curious about Toyota Mirai. On the one hand, it boasts about the advancement of hydrogen-fueled electric vehicles, but on the other hand, its design orientation is actually a traditional Japanese luxury sedan that is gradually losing. The collision of avant-garde and traditional has created this magical high-end sedan.
Who is Toyota Mirai?
I believe many people are very unfamiliar with the name of Toyota Mirai, because it does not have the corresponding official Chinese name yet. Some people like to transliterate it as "Miwa", but its Japanese pronounced "�らい" - meaning "future".
Mirai is a product of Toyota FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) project. As early as 1992, Toyota began to study hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At that time, due to various factors, it did not develop new models, but used the mature gasoline vehicle platform at that time to transform it into a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
The first generation of Mirai was launched in 2014 and became the world's first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle. It has the characteristics of "fast charging for 3 minutes, a range of 600km (Toyota test value under NEDC conditions), "like a mobile air purifier, which only drains water but not carbon", "no fear of the cold and travels without obstacles", "When shelter or camping, it can be used as a mobile emergency power station to supply power to the outside world".
(As early as the 2011 Tokyo Auto Show , Toyota brought the FCV-R concept car, which can be regarded as the prototype of Mirai. At the 2013 Tokyo Auto Show, Toyota continued to launch the FCV concept car, and this time the styling has been very mass-produced.)
(until December 15, 2014, Feng The Tian FCV concept car has basically completed technical verification, and the first-generation "Mirai" was first launched in Japan.)
to 2019 Tokyo Auto Show, Toyota brought the concept version of the second-generation Mirai. Compared with the first-generation model, it is built on the TNGA-L rear-wheel drive platform (that is, the same platform as Lexus LS), and the range has been increased by 30%, reaching 850km.
At the Beijing Auto Show held in September 2020, Toyota also brought the second-generation Mirai to the scene, allowing more domestic consumers to understand that "this is the future of cars."
In December 2020, Toyota Motor Company announced that FCEV ( fuel cell vehicle ) "MIRAI II" was a brand new generation and was the first to be launched in the United States and Japan. Referring to the latest official website information, the second-generation Mirai is priced in Japan from 7.1-8.6 million yen (equivalent to RMB 349,000-423,000); the United States is priced at US 49,500-66,000 (equivalent to RMB 359,000-479,000).
positioning upgrades. The first-generation mass-produced version of the charming luxury sedan
was born in 2014, which may be quite unfamiliar to domestic car fans. The editor has only witnessed it at the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show.In general, the first generation Mirai is of the same body style as the fourth generation Prius of the same period. If you have a little impression of this car, you will know how earth-shaking the appearance of the second generation Mirai is: the front of the car with a huge inclination has "squinting" headlights and scary inverted trapezoidal fog light areas on both sides, the towering body and relatively tiny wheels seem to be disproportionate, and the inconspicuous tail shape... It is even difficult for you to define it with a hatchback or a sedan for a while.
(the fourth-generation Prius on the left and the first-generation Mirai on the right: or Toyota wanted to make the new-tech Mirai look more friendly, so it positioned it as a compact family sedan similar to the Prius, but the outside world did not buy it very much. When it comes to the second-generation Mirai, Toyota simply upgraded it and directly transformed it into a traditional Japanese luxury sedan, and compared with the 15th-generation emperor. Guan , Lexus LC, and LS share TNGA-L platform. )
comes to the second generation Mirai in front of you. When the editor first saw the official picture, he could even describe it as "stunning". The outgoing headlights extend to the middle of the wheel arch, and the super long engine cover compresses the passenger compartment back. This layout now seems to be willful, and coupled with the sexy coupe-style large sloping back, it makes people unable to move their eyes away. The Mirai tested this time is a retired work vehicle for the Winter Olympics. It uses a relatively calm and serious black paint. If it is blue or white, I believe it can better show this proud and beautiful body.
The car system is exquisite and easy to use. The car system is "retro"
High seat comfort The rear row is affected by the hydrogen tank.
Mirai working principle/driving experience
Before talking about Mirai's driving experience, we might as well understand what the hydrogen fuel cell is and how the Mirai works. In fact, it is not a profound thing that is out of reach. In a literal sense, it is a battery that uses hydrogen as a raw material.
The basic principle of hydrogen fuel cell is actually the reverse reaction of electrolyzed water , which supplies hydrogen and oxygen to the cathode and anode respectively. After hydrogen diffuses outward through the cathode and reacts with the electrolyte, electrons are released to the anode through an external load, thereby generating electrical energy. For students taught by Chinese teachers, it can be simply understood that by combining hydrogen and oxygen , electricity and water are generated, where electricity is output for use by the vehicle, and water is discharged from the vehicle.
In terms of mechanical structure, the second generation Mirai is mainly composed of four major components, including: 1. fuel cell unit; 2. Hydrogen storage tank; 3. Drive battery; 4. Drive motor.
Among them, the new fuel cell unit uses solid polymer, which has significantly improved the volume compared to the old model, and the power density is higher. The fuel cell DC-DC converter is also 21% smaller than the old model and 2.9kg lighter than the old model; the most important hydrogen tank has been upgraded from one of the old models to three, and is set in a T-shaped layout below the rear seats and suitcase. The three hydrogen storage tanks can be loaded with 5.6kg hydrogen (4.6kg for the old model).
The rear-drive motor of the second-generation Mirai can generate a maximum power of 134kW (182PS) and a peak torque of 300N·m, with a maximum speed of 175km/h. With the new battery pack, the battery life of 750km can be achieved with a low-end battery life of 850km; the battery life of 850km is truly solved in the past problem of slow charging of electric vehicles, and fundamentally achieved the performance of hydrogen charging of 850km in 5 minutes.
However, if we want to achieve a battery life of 850km, it also raises a problem. At present, most of our domestic hydrogen refueling stations can only add 35Mpa hydrogen , while Mirai's official calibration suggests 70Mpa. There is a big gap between the two, so our test drive car shows that the battery life is only about 410-420km in the "full hydrogen" state.
Briefly talk about the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
● Is hydrogen fuel cell vehicles a mobile bomb?
When it comes to hydrogen energy, I believe many netizens will think of "explosion" at the first time.It is indeed mentioned in our middle school textbook that hydrogen gas and other gases are mixed and ignited, and it is prone to explosions; but that is in an environment specially made in a laboratory.
. On the real hydrogen fuel car , it is not so easy to explode. First of all, all the hydrogen on Mirai is stored in a hydrogen storage tank, and this tank is made of carbon fiber and Kevlar composite material, which can withstand light gun attacks; at the same time, the hydrogen storage tank is also equipped with a check valve-type fusible plug pressure relief valve. When the vehicle is on fire, the fusible plug will be melted by heat and discharged from hydrogen.
plus hydrogen itself is lighter than air, and it will rise rapidly even after leakage. As long as the ventilation is good, there will generally be no explosion risk on open roads.
( According to reports, a Japanese laboratory conducted a "fire" experiment, and sent hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and gasoline vehicles to compare fuel leakage and fire conditions. In 3 seconds, oil leakage under the gasoline vehicle caught fire, while hydrogen quickly surged above the car and caught fire. One and a half minutes later, the open flame of the fuel cell vehicle was extinguished, and the gasoline vehicle was in full swing, and the fire in the gasoline vehicle finally burned to the end. From this, it seems that the safety of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is higher than that of gasoline vehicles. )
● The high cost of hydrogen production/hydrogen storage
The second-generation Mirai's three hydrogen storage tanks can be loaded with 5.6kg of hydrogen (the old model is 4.6kg). Taking the 70MPa compressed hydrogen in Beijing as an example, the price per kg is 95 yuan. Based on this calculation, it will cost 532 yuan to fill it up. Based on the 850km range, the cost of the new car is about 0.62 yuan per kilometer, which is not an advantage over electric vehicles.
, which leads to such a high price, the biggest impact behind it is the cost of hydrogen production/storage.
Hydrogen element is everywhere, but its preparation is not easy. Currently, there are three main types of hydrogen production. One is the by-product of the petroleum industry, mainly hydrogen-containing exhaust gas, which is currently the main source of hydrogen. The second is to use fossil energy to produce hydrogen, such as using coal or natural gas to crack hydrogen. This hydrogen production method consumes very low energy, is not expensive, and has considerable production capacity. The third is to produce hydrogen by renewable energy, such as using solar photoelectricity, wind power, hydropower, etc. The advantage of this type of hydrogen production is absolutely environmentally friendly, but the cost is relatively high.
. During the storage process, it is currently mainly divided into high-pressure gas tanks, liquid tanks and solid tanks. Among them, high-pressure gas tanks are the common method now, but the storage volume of this method is very limited; while the liquid tank needs to be kept at -252.77 degrees Celsius, which means very high cost and is not very realistic.
. Solid hydrogen storage is to store hydrogen in a solid material by using the physical adsorption or chemical reaction of solids to hydrogen. Although the solid hydrogen storage method is safe and stable, it is also unrealistic to reduce rare precious metals such as palladium and rhodium. The best way is to produce and store hydrogen on site to avoid the transportation process.
At the same time, the cost of building an hydrogen refueling station of 200 kg is often more than 10 million yuan. Such high construction costs are obviously the biggest obstacle to the rapid development of hydrogen refueling stations.
However, as early as the "" National Science and Technology Innovation Plan " in China, the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology was mentioned. The goal is to reach 2 million fuel cell vehicles by 2030, the number of hydrogen refueling stations will reach 1,000, and the industrial output value will exceed 1 trillion yuan. It is still helpful for the popularization of hydrogen energy .
● Only a few car companies actively participate in
As we all know, there are only a handful of car companies that have invested in R&D in hydrogen fuel vehicles. Among them, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and BMW are among the best.
Take Hyundai Motor as an example. As early as January 2021, Hyundai Motor Group signed an investment cooperation agreement with the Guangzhou Development Zone Government of Guangzhou City to establish Hyundai Motor Hydrogen Fuel Cell System (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., and started construction in February to build the group's world's first overseas hydrogen fuel cell system research and development, production and sales base - "HTWO Guangzhou".After completion, it will become a comprehensive base including hydrogen fuel cell stack production plants, hydrogen fuel cell system production plants, R&D centers and innovation centers, and will expand and supply the world's leading hydrogen fuel cell systems to automobiles, ships, rail transit, power generation and other fields.
(Hyundai Motor has 24 years of hydrogen fuel cell research and development history. Its hydrogen fuel cell SUVNexo has exceeded 30,000 units as of September 2022. It is one of the world's highest-selling hydrogen fuel cell models.)
(BMW has also started producing fuel cells at the hydrogen energy technology center in Munich this year, which means BMW iX5 Hydrogen Protection VR6 concept car will enter the limited production stage. )
(In terms of independent brands, Changan Deep Blue SL03 hydrogen electric version has also been launched in July, with a price of up to 699,900 yuan. Its hydrogen fuel cell system is equipped with, which can output a maximum power of 160kW and has a comprehensive operating range of more than 700km.)
is written in the end
Compared with pure electric models, Toyota's investment in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is even more than 1. With the maturity of technology, the continuous construction of infrastructure supporting networks, policy support, etc., the participation of hydrogen energy in our daily transportation field will gradually increase. However, everything is difficult at the beginning. Given the numerous technical barriers and the high cost of hydrogen production/hydrogen storage, it is obviously unrealistic to expand as quickly as an electric vehicle in the short term. As an industry giant, Toyota uses hydrogen fuel cell vehicles like Mirai to open the door to transportation solutions for the future, making transportation more diverse, which has to be said to be a good thing. (Photo/Text/Photo: Pacific Auto Yang Jiazhen)
