H2Go
HYDROGEN may be the most abundant element in the universe, but that’s not much help when you’re in a fuel-cell-powered Toyota Mirai in a Staffordshire quarry, with just 65 miles range showing from however much gas remains in the reinforced-composite fuel tank.
Those 65 miles wouldn’t be panic-inducing to most ‘ordinary’ EV drivers, because public chargepoints are often no further away than the local supermarket. But when the sat-nav says it’s 55 miles to the nearest, make that only, public hydrogen pump in the Midlands, and said pump is in the heart of Birmingham with rush hour approaching, the range anxiety meter goes off the scale.
It didn’t help that when I’d collected the car the day before, it was unclear whether the Mirai’s range meter had a built-in reserve function. With only a dozen hydrogen filling stations in the entire UK, and no guarantee that the pump you need will be working when you need it, it’s not surprising that no one had been daft enough to find out.
