Toyota Kirloskar Mirai: India's 1st green hydrogen fuel cell car launched; zero carbon emissions, 550 km range and more

Toyota Kirloskar Mirai: The automaker company Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd on Wednesday launched India's first green hydrogen fuel cell car 'Mirai'. The car will soon be tested on Indian roads. The best feature of the car is that it gets filled with hydrogen in 5 minutes and can run 550 km once filled. It has a greater drive range than an electric vehicle.

Toyota Kirloskar (TKM) and International Center for Automotive Technology (ICAT) will jointly test the Mirai in the country. The trial will be done on Indian roads and climatic conditions.

Mirai, the first car in the country to run on Green Hydrogen Fuel Cell, is a second-generation car. Prior to this, Toyota had launched Mirai in 2014 and the current Mirai range is equipped with tremendous improvements in capability.

The average range of a hydrogen fuel-based car is around 600 km. Hydrogen refueling can be done in just 5 to 7 minutes. About 5.6kg of hydrogen can be filled.

The car generates zero carbon emissions which means there will be no pollution, only a few drops of water will come out as waste.

This new hydrogen fuel-based car has a greater drive range than an electric vehicle (EV). While an EV car takes 6-8 hours to charge, a hydrogen-powered car can be refilled in just 5 minutes. The capacity of a lithium battery in an electric car degrades over time and becomes a major problem when the battery is idle. Whereas the hydrogen that is being filled in Toyota's Mirai does not cause pollution even in making it. That's why it is called green hydrogen.