"The car does what it's supposed to," Perez says. Some members extol the almost holy virtues of driving an emissions-free vehicle and saving the earth others count the minutes until their Mirai leases end. On Facebook, a Mirai group that Perez is part of whiplashes between ecstatic and despondent. "The excitement of being a trailblazer rubbed off long ago," says Patrick Perez, a Mirai driver in the Los Angeles area. Nearly 17 years after Newsom took a sip of tomorrow, FCEV customers are finding it difficult to fill up and almost impossible to offload their cars when reality sets in. Future EVs: Every Electric Vehicle Coming Soon.Biden's Infrastructure Plan Is All about the EV.In a state that covers more than 163,000 square miles, there are currently only 45 hydrogen stations, and they don't always have enough fuel for everyone who needs it. Deals and incentives abound, but if you're driving any of the 9000-plus fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that call California home, you better be good with logistics. The trouble with blazing a trail, however, is that you don't always know what you're getting into. In 2015, when Toyota debuted the Mirai hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered sedan in the United States, the automaker took to calling customers trailblazers. Still, even in California, hydrogen's future is murky. That makes it a great test market for hydrogen cars, which are supposed to solve the range and charging headaches of today's EVs by carrying more energy and refueling more quickly. The Tesla Model 3 was the bestselling car in the state in the first quarter of 2020, a sign that Californians have an appetite for more environmentally friendly vehicles. There are, according to the California Energy Commission (CEC), more than 70,000 public and shared private vehicle-charging plugs throughout the state. If you want to go electric, the Golden State is a fine place to be. Last fall, Newsom, now California's governor, signed an executive order requiring all new cars and light-duty trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles starting in 2035, his ambitions buoyed by a growing list of EVs and rising demand. "You are looking, literally, at the future," he said. Mayor Gavin Newsom held a press conference, and to show off just how clean the vehicles' emissions would be, he collected condensate from a tailpipe in a paper cup and took a sip. In April 2004, the city of San Francisco acquired two Honda FCX cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Illustration by Jorge Cuadal Calle | Car and Driverįrom the May 2021 issue of Car and Driver.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |