Hydrogen cars. Will they break through as a sustainable alternative? Reporter Harald Buit drove a few days in a royal Japanese limousine, which sometimes had to take a pee.
Watch it shine, my temporary one bat mobile .
The deep blue Toyota Mirai Prestige is a whopping car at five meters long. The car is powered whisper-quietly by green hydrogen, extracted from wind and/or solar energy. A beautiful, sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.
But especially the sight of the car makes the lower jaw drop spontaneously. Especially if you have only tufted in decent mid-sized cars so far. A passing neighbor almost twists his neck. He just manages to avoid the traffic calming flower box in our street with his bicycle.
,,Bought a new cart, neighbour?” he shouts. If I want. Gaston – good morning! – Starreveld of the Postcode Lottery has not yet rung the doorbell.
bounded relationship
No, the ‘fat bin’ and I have a limited relationship. A couple of days to date say. Kiek’n or what it is. Made possible by Green Planet Mobility from Pesse. You know: from that futuristic-looking gas station near the A28.
Two brands of hydrogen cars
According to numbers According to Statistics Netherlands, our country had more than 8.9 million passenger cars on 1 January 2023, 1 percent more than a year earlier.
78.5 percent of all passenger cars ran on petrol. The number of electric and hybrid cars increased. At the beginning of 2023, the Netherlands had 954,000 electric and hybrid cars, an increase of 31.5 percent compared to January 2022. This means that the number of diesel passenger cars has been surpassed by the group of electric and hybrid cars for the first time. Almost 1 in 9 passenger cars in the Netherlands is now an electric or hybrid car.
The number of hydrogen cars registered in our country is just over 500. There are only two brands that produce a model, in addition to the Toyota Mirai, that is the Hyundai Nexo. From 2035, only new cars that run on green energy may be sold in the European Union (EU).
Entrepreneur Edward Doorten not only offers sustainable fuels, but also has more than thirty electric/hybrid and ten hydrogen second-hand vehicles in stock. To introduce people to the application of hydrogen and to raise awareness of this energy carrier, Green Planet invited test drivers.
formula 1
I mainly associate that term with Formula 1, where Mercedes and RedBull, among others, also work with such people. Now I am definitely not Mick Schumacher, but I have been a loyal follower of this sport for about thirty years. The racing, the overtaking maneuvers, the strategy and the decadent glamor surrounding the super fast race cars fascinate me immensely.
No car crazy
Not auto tech. Some basic knowledge, that’s it. I’m not a car geek in that respect either. Never been. Where peers moved heaven, earth and piggy bank or bank account from mom and dad after getting their driver’s license to drive a worn-out BMW, pimped VW Golf or crackling Alfa Romeo, I heated up in a gray Datsun Cherry-with-dangerously-advancing-rust.
Motor is fine, by the way. A car has to do it for me above all. Departing from A and arriving at B, without warning lights on the dashboard and indefinable sounds or smells that cause spontaneous sweat patches.
Unlike flirting in the disco at the time, reliability is more important than appearance when it comes to cars.
‘Beautiful’
Anyway. Back to the deep blue Japanese sacred cow that lives up to its name. Mirai means ‘miracle’, ‘admirable’ and ‘beautiful’. For those looks and sustainable technology must be cut considerably. The new price is around 85,000 euros.
,,But you don’t pay that for us, you know”, soothes advisor Lothar Buijs of Green Planet Mobility. It can come along for more than 59,000 euros. New or used hydrogen cars in the lease can receive a maximum subsidy of 20,000 euros. “In this way we arrive at an equal lease price, compared to a petrol car or a hybrid car,” says Buijs.
He patiently explains the operation of all the buttons in the Mirai. A car with automatic transmission. That alone is a new experience for me, with such an unemployed left foot. The driver imagines himself in a cockpit, with digital screens and all kinds of data.
Exuberant hair
Even the rearview mirror is a screen. So it makes no sense to check your teeth for a piece of spinach that has been left behind, or your nose for a hair that is too exuberant. No, that’s what the old trusted mirror in the sun visor, with automatic light, is for.
The bright blue bolide does not go unnoticed on the highway. Motorists sometimes overtake painfully slowly, heading towards the Mirai. Passengers point through the window. During a weekend job in Coevorden, I see a man walking around the car when I return to the parking lot.
A German, it turns out. After his compliments on the car, the very Dutch follow-up question sounds wieviel das cost hat . My short answer ‘very much’ does not invite in-depth follow-up questions. He turns silently around the car a few more times, like a rooster around a couple of hens.
“Auf Wassersstoff” , I break the silence. ,, Oh so”, I get back. Yes, he had already seen that there is no regular exhaust underneath.
Mild itching
The test drives are always a small party. The Mirai drives like a charm and feels safe. With one caveat. I sometimes get a little itchy from all the well-intentioned warnings on the screens. Take good care when driving away, for example. Sure mom.
The digital steering and lane assistant ensures that I stay within the line. Also useful: the collision warning system, which intervenes in the event of an imminent collision. And in the touching category: the car has to relieve itself periodically. Taking a pee after pressing the H2O button. Because that’s all the Mirai emits: water and air.
What is also striking: the average consumption is indicated in kilos per 100 kilometers. Not in liters. The Mirai fills up with five kilos, good for a range of about 500 kilometers. A kilo of hydrogen currently costs 19.50 euros at Green Planet.
Price tag
So there is still a price tag for environmentally friendly driving, despite the fact that you do not pay road tax. You can’t refuel everywhere either. There are currently four filling stations with hydrogen in the North: Pesse, Assen, Groningen and Delfzijl.
So you have to plan well for a holiday with a hydrogen car. There are relatively many hydrogen filling stations in Germany: around a hundred. There are also hydrogen stations in Belgium, Denmark, France, Switzerland and Austria. A holiday with an electric car is easier: there are about 300,000 charging points in Europe, 20,000 of which are for fast charging.
Exciting
Filling up with hydrogen for the first time is exciting. Why do I suddenly have to think about the disaster with the Zeppelin Hindenburg ? Damn that was a lifetime ago. So much technical progress has been made since then. No need for that unrest.
This is also evident in the implementation. Filling up with hydrogen is comparable to petrol and/or diesel. You’ll be done in five minutes. Much faster than when charging electric cars. An LED screen explains how it works and how much you fill up. According to Buijs, hydrogen is refueled about fifty times a week. “The interest in hydrogen cars is increasing,” he notes.
But purchase price and availability keep potential customers in the waiting room. “No one knows exactly how the development will be, but hydrogen in general is gaining ground.”
The Toyota Mirai Prestige has 182 hp on board and a top speed of 175 km/h. Within 10 seconds you zoom from 0 to 100. Control of the right foot is therefore recommended, although it is a great feeling to kick the pack of horses on the tail.
No tow bar
Disadvantages of the car? Well, not an insurmountable problem, but taking the Mirai to the hardware store for a few slats is not a good idea. The rear seat cannot be folded flat and there is no tow bar under the car for a cart. Furthermore, I personally like more compact cars with a high(er) entry. At the Mirai I feel like I’m almost on the street.
But other than that, no complaints. As a layman, I don’t venture a Top Gear-like review, but I can conclude the following: it was a comfortable few days of touring and environmentally friendly.
How does a hydrogen car work?
A hydrogen car contains a tank with hydrogen. This energy carrier is converted into electricity in a fuel cell, which drives the engine. The fuel cell is a device in which the hydrogen reacts with oxygen. This reaction generates electricity. No CO2, nitrogen and particulate matter are released while driving, as is the case with the combustion of petrol and diesel, but only a little water vapour. The water leaves the car through an exhaust system.
Just like an electric car with a battery, a hydrogen car recovers energy when braking. This energy is stored in a small battery. If more green hydrogen is available in the Netherlands, the CO2 impact of driving a hydrogen car will decrease. Because the common gray hydrogen is still made with natural gas, petroleum or coal.