Saturday, December 10, 2016

Where and how to fill up your Toyota Mirai


I've seen two Mirais in my little town now. Where the heck do they fill their cars with hydrogen? And how do you fill one up?


Ed, was it easy to fill?


1 comment:

Ed Kim said...

It was actually pretty straightforward. You pick from H35 or H70, which refers to the pressure. In the case of Mirai, you use H70. You put the nozzle into the filler and then flick a lever to lock it in place. Then you just fill it up.

Differences compared to gasoline? The nozzle and handle are soaking wet with condensation and freezing cold. But it's just pure water. No odor, as with gasoline. As the tank fills up, you hear lots of sucking and hissing noises as the tank fills up. The whole process take about five minutes, as with a gasoline car.

It's expensive though. A retail lessee gets free fuel for three years, but out of pocket, it's costly. I only filled up a quarter tank and it cost $25. A full tank would probably cost about $100. The trip computer on a full tank said it had about 235 miles of range on it. So it would be a pretty expensive proposition without the promotional free fuel.