The “hydrogen economy” has a nice ring to it. It promises a clean, efficient future, with fuel-cell electric vehicles that offer all the fill-and-go range of internal combustion cars, yet produce nothing except water vapour for emissions. Closing the green-energy circle, the hydrogen needed to power these vehicles could be created from bio-waste or by electrolysis using renewable electricity sources such as wind, solar, and hydro power. However, we’ve had this vision dangled in front of our eyes for so long now it’s starting to feel like the future past. Toyota aims to change that with the Mirai, a car whose name is derived from the Japanese word for “future” and whose mission is to help bring that future into the present.
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