ASPEN, Colorado - The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle has proved it can go the distance - 4.2 litres/100km is an official North American combined city/highway driving calculation.
That's an estimated driving range of 502km on a single tank of hydrogen – further than for any other zero-emissions car on the market.
Jim Lentz, Toyota North America's CEO, has just announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s fuel-economy rating for the Mirai at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.
EMITS WATER VAPOUR
It confirms that Mirai is the only zero-emissions electric vehicle on the market capable of exceeding 480km on a full tank.
VIDEO: Toyota Mirai - zero-emissions car
Lenz said: "Toyota realised in the early 1990's that electrification was key to the future of the automobile. Just as Prius introduced hybrid-electric vehicles to millions of customers nearly 20 years ago, so the Mirai is now poised to usher in a new era of efficient hydrogen-fuelled transportation."
Mirai is the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle, a four-door sedan that competes with traditional internal combustion engines. Instead of using petrol, the Mirai runs on electricity created on demand by hydrogen fuel and oxygen.
The only emission produced by this process is water vapour.
Toyota will introduce the car in limited numbers in the UK and some other European markets towards the end of 2016 after its launch in Japan and, in California.