Members and guests of the IET in Southern California, ranging from teenagers to those over half a century older enjoyed a fantastic talk from Jackie Birdsall talking about the upcoming Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell car. As one of the engineering team who had been working on this for 12 years Jackie was able to answer every question that a room full of engineers could ask about the fuel cell technology and the innovations that Toyota had made to produce the vehicle.



%u200BWhile electric cars currently have all the press, the production efficiency to generate electricity is low compared to CNG or Hydrogen, so while Electric Vehicles are more efficient and CNG is a more efficnet fuel, the total efficiency of Hydrogen production with a Fuel Cell Vehicle makes it 50% more efficent than an electric vehicle.



In addition to engineering diagrams showing how the fuel cells themselves worked, Jackie also explained how Toyota's innovations enabled them to empty the fuel cell of water to prevent freezing in cold weather, either through a button on the dashboard or automatically by the car sensing the conditions, while allowing water to be available for the fuel cell to start up. Of course driving the car in extreme cold doesn't present an issue as heat from the fuel cell keeps it warm.



The talk also covered all the other infrastructure required to make fuel cell vehicles viable such as hydrogen stations, vehcile safety with the compressed gasses, the need to keep hydrogen at -40 degrees for refueling efficiency and so forth.



Some models of the Mirai will also come with a connector to allow you to connect your house to the car to let you run essential appliances at home during a blackout. The same power source, could of course also be used in an emergency to re-charge an electric car...



A fantastic talk and many thanks to Toyota and Jackie for helping make it happen.