Hydrogen-based mobility has started to gain momentum in the German capital.
An unprecedented initiative was launched in Berlin: two hundred by the end of the year Toyota Mirai the largest ride-sharing company expands its portfolio with a hydrogen fuel cell sedan.
Germany is one of the European strongholds of hydrogen-based mobility. In recent years, fuel cell taxis, collection taxis and even driver training cars have appeared in many cities of the country; but the police, the fire department or even local governments have realized that the technology that produces electricity from hydrogen is not only safe to a great extent, but also perfectly suitable for meeting daily traffic needs quickly and flexibly.
All that is needed for this is a properly developed charging infrastructure, and from this point of view, Germany is in a privileged position: at the moment, 91 charging points across the country (of which four are in Berlin) await motorists; this represents 56 percent of the entire European H2 well network.
The connection is obvious: the more hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are put on the market, the more the demand for charging points increases, and a denser network is the best incentive if someone wants to drive with the fuel of the future today.
This “circle of angels” is now further strengthened by a H2 Moves Berlin initiative, which will put two hundred Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell sedans on sale in Berlin by the end of 2023. Anyone can travel with the cars, without restrictions: they are made available by the consortium through the smartphone application of the largest ride sharing service provider, Uber.
The initiative, in which, in addition to Toyota, one of the largest miners of platinum, which is essential for the production of hydrogen fuel cells, the Anglo American mining company, and the SafeDriver Group, which specializes in mobility solutions, participates, initially ensures the possibility of emission-free transport for a period of two years. The environmental compatibility of the project is increased by the fact that a large proportion (up to 50 percent) of the drivers at the filling stations in Berlin are certified hydrogen from a sustainable source they can fill up in the carbon fiber reinforced tanks of the Toyota Mirai sedans.
The total of 5.5 kg (142.2 liters) of hydrogen stored in them enables a range of up to more than 600 kilometers. Its 182-horsepower electric motor accelerates the 4,975-mm-long sedan with a top speed of 175 km/h to 100 km/h in 9 seconds. These numbers also show that the Toyota Mirai and its hydrogen fuel cell technology are fully competitive with today’s internal combustion engine-powered models, including refueling in just a few minutes.
This is one of the major advantages of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles over battery electric models; the other is the weight: the Toyota Mirai weighs 1,920 kilograms ready to go, while a BEV with similar parameters can be even 3-400 kilograms heavier due to the high-capacity battery.
The cooperating parties are already investigating the possibility of extending the project to other large cities in Germany. Hydrogen-based mobility has already reached Hungary, it was recently tested in Paks Toyota hydrogen cell bus.
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