Tokyo — The hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai I'm test-riding in Tokyo's Odaiba district looks and feels like any other luxury sedan, and it's as silent as a hybrid or all-electric vehicle. But hydrogen vehicles remain exotic here in Japan, seven years after the Mirai launched.
Most are there to protectively top off their tanks, another employee tells me. Japan has only about 160 hydrogen refueling stations, concentrated in the country's three major cities. By comparison, there are about 30,000 gas stations across the country. Once every three months or so, a motorist ends up stranded, their tank empty, and they have to get towed.
, doubling the share of renewables providing electricity, to as much as 38% by 2030, with nuclear supplying about a fifth; its hydrogen-ammonia fuel target was set at 1%. While the fuel itself doesn't emit carbon, most hydrogen produced today is manufactured using fossil fuels. The goal is to commercialize schemes for making hydrogen from renewables -- "green hydrogen."
Isn't hydrogen volatile?