The Toyota Mirai has claimed an official Guinness World Record for covering the longest distance made by a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle without refuelling.
On just a single fill of hydrogen, which took 5 minutes to complete, the EV racked up 845 miles around Southern California setting a new distance benchmark for zero emission vehicles.
Whereas a standard combustion engine vehicle would have emitted approximately 300kg of CO2 over the same distance, the Mirai emitted nothing but water, logging 152 MPGe (miles-per-US gallon equivalent).
However, unless the hydrogen was generated via electrolysis (“green” hydrogen) rather than from methane (“grey” hydrogen, which is where the majority of global hydrogen supplies come from), there will have been CO2 emitted during the production process. Grey hydrogen for this record would have emitted around 54kg of CO during its production.
Guinness World Records adjudicator Michael Empric was there during the record attempt to ensure it passed all documentation procedures. Mr Empric validated the car’s tank with a seal at the start and end of the journey.
“The Toyota Mirai’s journey without the need to refuel showcases the power of fuel cell electric technology. This technology and the design ingenuity of the team at Toyota led to a history-making moment,” said Empric.
Driven by professional hyper-miler Wayne Gerdes and co-piloted by Bob Winger, the pair used driving techniques that maximised the car’s fuel efficiency potential.
The two-day trip began at the Toyota Technical Center (TTC) in Gardena, California on 23 August. From there, the car travelled south to San Ysidro and then north to Santa Barbara through Santa Monica. That evening the Mirai returned to TTC having clocked up 473 miles. The next day the team stayed more local, pushing through 372 miles on the San Diego freeway until they ran out of fuel.
The EV was driven mainly in rush hour traffic and consumed 5.65kg of hydrogen in total.
Bob Carter, executive vice president of Toyota Motor North America, said: “In 2016 the Toyota Mirai was the first production fuel cell electric vehicle available for retail sale in North America, and now the next generation Mirai is setting distance records.”