[Animats]

Toyota ought to be the big threat. But their management made a terrible mistake. They went for a car powered by hydrogen.

This is a real car, the Toyota Mirai.[1] You can buy one right now in California. They've sold about 700 cars. $57,500, including 3 years of hydrogen fill-ups. 312 mile range. 5 minutes to refuel, not including the drive to one of the few hydrogen stations.

Here's the only hydrogen station near San Francisco, on S. Airport Blvd.[2] Hydrogen stations are subsidized by the State of California through 2023, unless somebody stops that. (Remember Arnold and the hydrogen-powered Hummer?)

[1] https://ssl.toyota.com/mirai/fcv.html [2] https://www.google.com/maps/@37.6481529,-122.4056447,3a,42.5...

[ceterum_censeo]

Is it really a mistake? I'm under the impression that automakers pursue FCVs because of the government incentives. I would think that a portion of the R&D could support other alternative fuel vehicle systems, so even if FCVs aren't the future (and it doesn't seem so) it perhaps isn't necessarily a mistake to investigate them if it's incentivized.

[ChuckMcM]

0 to 60 in 9.2 seconds. That is a deal killer for $50,000+ cars usually.