Minister Nitin Gadkari’s first reaction after taking a ride in Toyota Mirai Hydrogen car [Video]

As we covered recently, Nitin Gadkari’s new pilot project car is the Toyota Mirai. What makes Mirai special is that it runs on hydrogen. Here, is the first video of the Union Minister after taking a spin in the new Toyota Mirai. Nitin Gadkari did not drive the car, he was sitting on the passenger seat.

The video is uploaded on YouTube by Vision TV World. We can see in the video that Nitin Gadkari has a grin on his face when he gets out of the car. There are several media reporters that starts asking Nitin Gadkari what was his experience. Minister, meanwhile starts calling his colleagues so that they can also take a test ride in the Mirai.

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Once, all the other ministers sat down inside the vehicle then Nitin Gadkari shares his experience. He says that the vehicle is very silent, there is no sound of the engine and the interior looks like it belongs to a luxury car. He also says that the Mirai has great pick-up and when the driver presses the acceleration pedal, water comes out of the exhaust pipe. Nitin Gadkari liked the initial acceleration of the Mirai because it is an electric car. Unlike ICE vehicles which need to rev the engine to produce the power, electric vehicles can produce most of their torque as soon as the acceleration pedal is pressed.

During the event when the Mirai was unveiled, Nitin Gadkari said that the pilot project focuses on spreading awareness of alternative fuels. Toyota Mirai has been introduced as part of a pilot project with the International Centre for Automotive Technology or ICAT. As of now, we do not know whether Toyota will sell Mirai to regular people or not. However, it has been spotted on the Indian roads earlier also.

The project is about spreading awareness about alternative sources of fuel. If the project is successful then buses, public transport and heavy vehicles might run on hydrogen. However, the full details of the project are not known.

Mirai runs on electricity that is generated by hydrogen. The powertrain breaks down the hydrogen into water and oxygen to generate electricity. So, it needs a small battery that stores the electricity and then powers the electric motors. When compared the size of the battery is 30 times smaller than conventional electric cars.

On a full tank of hydrogen, Mirai can go up to 646 km which is quite a lot. The driving range beats almost all the electric cars that are currently on sale in India. All of this might seem really good on paper. However, there is a catch. The issue is the availability of hydrogen is sparse. There are very few stations that offer hydrogen in India. Because of this, you would have to prepare your road trips properly and think about where you will be refilling your vehicle. Having said that refilling hydrogen takes just 3 to 5 minutes which is very close to filling regular petrol or diesel.

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