Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari talks about hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai after using it for 6 months [Video]

In March 2022, Nitin Gadkari started using the Toyota Mirai as his daily ride. The Minister of Roadways, Transportation and Highways (MoRTH) has been regularly using the Mirai, which is currently the only such car on Indian roads. He talked about the car to MoneyControl and here is what he thinks about the car.

Gadkari talked about the car from the co-driver seat of the Mirari. He said, that the Mirai is the first car in India to run on hydrogen. There are three types of hydrogen brown hydrogen from crude oil, black hydrogen from coal and green hydrogen from water and organic waste. He said that the country can get green hydrogen by segregating waste, sewer waste and other methods.

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He further said that name “Mirai” means “Future” and he sees that the green hydrogen will drive India’s future. Gadkari also said that the government has started working on Project Green Hydrogen and within a year India will get cars, trucks and buses that can run on green hydrogen. Gadkari also said that Indian farmers will create green hydrogen in future. He also said that India will export green hydrogen in the future.

Gadkari also talked about ethanol and said that the blending of fuel will bring down the cost of petrol to Rs 25 per litre in the future. Currently, India’s import bill for fuel is 17 lakh crore and that will come down with the use of blended fuel. Gadkari also said that there will not be any concession of electric cars in the future as there is a long waiting period for such vehicles. He said the price of the vehicles will come down as the numbers increase.

Toyota Mirai to be made in India

The second-generation Mirai will be manufactured at Toyota’s plant in Karnataka in the future. The brand is yet to give a timeline for the same. However, it is likely to happen sometime in 2024. It was introduced globally in December 2020. The Mirai runs on hydrogen. It uses compressed gas to generate electricity and power the car. In full of hydrogen, the Mirai can go up to 646 km.

The Mirari gets a high-pressure hydrogen fuel tank. The powertrain breaks down the hydrogen into water and oxygen to generate electricity. There is a small battery that stores the power and uses it to power the motor. The size of battery is 30 times smaller than the conventional electric cars.

The pilot project is to spread awareness about hydrogen and FCEV. While the broader details of the adoption of the technology and pilot project remain unknown, if it becomes a success, we might get to see heavy buses and trucks using hydrogen technology in the future.

The hydrogen refill takes about 3-5 minutes, just like the standard fossil fuel cars. This reduces the downtime of the car and increases the range while bringing down the emissions to zero.

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