The leakage from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disrupted the Japanese’s plans for energy substitution, and the energy self-sufficiency rate fell to single digits. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry once proposed a plan to import hydrogen produced in Australia on a large scale , reducing dependence on Middle East oil. Although the Japanese can ensure that hybrid cars will become the absolute mainstream for at least the next fifty years, more future plans are already on the horizon.
Crude oil can continue to be used for 50 years, and coal can continue to be used for 200 years, but Japan has neither of these. Japan also had natural gas options, such as methane fuel cells, but in the end the Japanese gave up. The reason is simple. Most of the standards for natural gas fuel cells are not in the hands of the Japanese.
Hydrogen energy seems to be the most practical. Firstly, the United States has been promoting hydrogen energy plans to its allies since 2002, so Japan and South Korea have joined in. Secondly, Japan has mastered hydrogen energy. has the largest number of patents. Although the scale of domestic hydrogen energy is not the largest, its usage efficiency is the highest.
Immediately, Japan issued the "Japan Revitalization Strategy", "Energy Basic Plan" and "Hydrogen Energy/Fuel Cell Strategic Development Roadmap". NEDO issued a white paper on hydrogen energy, officially identifying hydrogen energy as the third pillar of domestic power generation. If a path is found on hydrogen energy, the energy problems that have plagued Japan for many years will be completely solved. At least that's what it seems.
Although hydrogen energy is regarded as a model by Japan and South Korea, the United States, the sponsoring country, does not attach much importance to it. Hydrogen energy is only one of the many options for the United States in the future. Faced with a country like the United States that is rich in materials and technology, Hydrogen energy, shale gas, oil, nuclear energy, and pure electric power can be options at any time, so Japan and South Korea can only rely on themselves on the road to developing hydrogen energy.
The Japanese hope to surpass the United States in hydrogen energy just like cars.
Based on this, Toyota and Honda have invested a lot of money in the research and development of hydrogen fuel vehicles, and launched FCV-Mirai and FCEV-Clarity respectively. Among them, Mirai is a hydrogen fuel car, while Clarity is a car series launched by Honda for hydrogen energy, electric and plug-in hybrid power. (Today electric plans stop, hydrogen and plug-in hybrids continue).
In 2014, Toyota showed the world the world's first mass-produced fuel cell car, Mirai, at the Los Angeles Auto Show for the first time. This name that represents the future showed the world that Toyota has the capability to mass-produce hydrogen fuel technology. Now the time has come to 2020, this troubled year will surely become an unforgettable node in the history of Toyota Motor.
In 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol was signed in Tokyo, Japan, Toyota decided to promote its newly launched hybrid car Prius to heads of state from 84 countries around the world. This was specially prepared by Toyota for the Kyoto Protocol. For Toyota engineers, this is almost an impossible task.
In 2020, during the Olympic Games originally held in Tokyo, Japan, Toyota decided to release its new second-generation fuel cell vehicle Mirai, allowing tourists and dignitaries from all over the world to appreciate the outstanding performance and advantages of hydrogen energy vehicles. . This was originally Toyota's wishful thinking, but the Olympics were postponed.
If the first-generation Mirai is just a representative work of Toyota's mass production technology that does not demand sales volume, then it is easy to understand the positioning of the first-generation Mirai - it must be distinctive enough, stunning enough, and expensive.
In September 2020, Toyota Mirai was only sold in a few places around the world. Only 11,000 vehicles were sold in nearly 6 years. This is already an amazing result, even if most of the vehicles All were delivered to the taxi company.
The first-generation Mirai is actually a particularly contradictory individual.
The price of the first-generation Mirai is as high as US$57,500, which is an unusual price, but what you get is a car with an acceleration capability of 0 to 0-60 seconds in 9.4 seconds, an extremely simple and plain interior, and a body size of only It can be called a compact car.
Toyota and Tesla have completely different understandings of the positioning of the first Mirai. In Tesla’s view, Toyota’s first FCV should maximize the advantages of hydrogen energy vehicles, and then Build an extreme performance car.
For example, compared with electric vehicles, FCVs only take 5 minutes to refill with hydrogen, but they can travel thousands of kilometers or have faster speeds. Subsequently, entry-level models have been continuously reduced in cost and gradually accepted by consumers.
But in reality, neither Toyota nor Honda chose Tesla’s route.
The FCV car Mirai can almost be regarded as a replica of the Prius. Even though hybrid power has the ability to push car performance to a new level, the Prius refused to do so. When it was first born, it mainly emphasized its economic positioning of energy conservation and environmental protection. .
The first-generation Mirai used front-wheel drive, and the interior almost copied the Prius family design without any distinctive features. Therefore, many customers who drove the Mirai for the first time said that it was a particularly special car to drive. Like Camry models.
However, Toyota said that Mirai has not been without progress in the past six years. Toyota has always hoped to further lower the price of Mirai, at least to the same as the current Crown. In this way, with the addition of the United States With relevant subsidies from the government and the Japanese government, Mirai may have the opportunity to gradually penetrate the market.
In 2020, Toyota officially announced the second-generation Mirai. With the postponement of the Olympic Games, Toyota will have more time to polish this car in the next year. The second-generation Mirai is cheaper, better-looking, and more efficient. In addition to being still limited in practicality by the availability of hydrogen, Toyota FCV has taken a big step towards practicality in the past six years.
The new Mirai no longer looks like a Prius. Toyota has gradually moved its design and positioning closer to the high-end brand Lexus. This is because in this generation, Mirai began to share the platform with Lexus.
The reason for this is that Toyota realized that although the first-generation Mirai was technically experienced, it was not exciting and luxurious enough on the whole. Consumer response was mediocre and consumer desire was not stimulated.
In order to make the second-generation Mirai look more emotional (Emotional Design), Toyota modified the weird vertical air intake of the first-generation Mirai and adopted an overall larger front grille. . In this regard, fuel cell vehicles are different from pure electric vehicles. Fuel cells need to continuously obtain outside air, so this grille is still needed.
The body size has been significantly adjusted. The body has been extended by six inches and the width has also been increased. The added space gives the car better legroom and brings better comfort. sex. The interior changed from Toyota style and turned to Lexus.
The bigger change comes from Toyota's always boring driving quality, so for the second-generation Mirai, Toyota based it on the Lexus rear-drive platform and adopted a multi-link suspension for the rear suspension. Similar to pure electric vehicles, a hydrogen tank is installed on the T-shaped beam to lower the center of gravity, make the body stronger, and achieve a front-to-rear weight ratio of 50:50.
However, based on the current situation that hydrogen fuel cells are still not friendly enough, Mirai may be most concerned about how to face the competition from pure electric vehicles. Whether it is power or battery life, although Toyota said that the Mirai has improved its acceleration performance, there is still a long way to go to reach the level of a motor.
As a result, the second-generation Mirai focused on space and battery life. The first-generation Mirai’s 114-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell stack initially occupied 33L of space in the vehicle, filling the entire engine compartment. The second-generation Mirai is 9L smaller in size, 10% more efficient, and has a power of 128 kilowatts.
Reducing the size of the fuel cell stack allows for the installation of larger hydrogen tanks. The Mirai has two hydrogen tanks, one under the rear seats and one under the trunk floor. The capacity has been increased from 4.6kg to 5.6kg. Combined with the new fuel cell system, the cruising range has been increased by 30 %. If you drive more gently, the new Mirai can theoretically travel 650 kilometers.
The retail price of the new Mirai will be about 20% lower than the previous one, which means the selling price will be reduced to about US$50,000. Limited by hydrogen supply, the market performance of the second-generation Mirai is still not optimistic. However, in this car we can see Japanese cars’ thinking about a hydrogen energy society.
The Mirai car has greater advantages than pure electric cars in the concept of energy conservation and environmental protection, because in fact it is no longer a zero-emission car, but a negative emission car.
According to Toyota, Mirai will actively filter the air through the fuel cell, removing 100% of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide. The Mirai screen will even display how many adults have purified the air they breathe while driving, like a mobile air purifier.
2020 is not only very important to Toyota Mirai, but also to Japan. This is the most crucial year for Japan to sell hydrogen fuel society overseas. At the 2020 Olympics, Japan hopes to show it to the world A relatively excellent hydrogen energy society, the Olympic flame, hydrogen-powered Olympic village and hydrogen fuel cell buses are already ready.
However, the creation of Japan's hydrogen energy society has encountered a powerful opponent, how to face the menacing pure electric vehicles. Just because of its obsession with hydrogen-fueled vehicles, Toyota has already ceded the electric vehicle market to other automakers. For now, Toyota doesn't have the ability to build small hydrogen-fueled cars. Faced with these competitions, Toyota still places hydrogen fuel vehicles in a more important position and launches pure electric vehicles in small cars in a timely manner.
In Toyota's plan, urban transportation will be temporarily replaced by pure electric vehicles (mainly overseas, mainly hybrids in Japan), and long-distance trucks and truck transportation will use hydrogen fuel cells.
However, no one knows what the future will bring. Even the powerful Toyota is not sure that it can sell 100,000 Mirai in the future, because the sales of FCV are seriously limited by the number of hydrogen stations and facilities. Although Toyota has not given up on hydrogen fuel cells, when will the world be ready to take over FCVs?
Picture?|?From the Internet
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.