Rough summer for hydrogen car seen as part of net-zero solution

The type of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle that the Edmonton International Airport acquired last year to help accelerate demand for the region's abundant fuel supply has recently come under fire from scientists concerned about greenwashing at the Olympics and drivers who have launched a class-action lawsuit in California.

But those behind the Edmonton region's push to incentivize a market for hydrogen vehicles with the help of 100 Toyota Mirais acquired in 2023 are confident they are on the right path, and some industry watchers suggest fuel-cells still have a shot to win the race to electrify vehicles, though they're trailing now.

In July, 120 scientists called on organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris to re-think using 500 hydrogen fuel-cell Toyota Mirais as official vehicles for the event. "We are writing to express our concern that Toyota's promotion of a hydrogen car is scientifically misaligned with net-zero and will damage the reputation of the 2024 Games," the scientists wrote. Using hydrogen's chemical energy to create power creates zero emissions, but the scientists noted that 96% of its production is based on fossil fuels, leading to accusations of greenwashing.

Meanwhile, a handful of Mirai drivers who lease the vehicle in California have launched a class-action lawsuit against Toyota. The suit alleges Toyota assured owners that hydrogen would be more available than it is. In February, Shell announced it is cancelling its build-out of refuelling stations and will close all existing stations. The price for hydrogen has increased so much in California — still the only state with significant hydrogen fuelling infrastructure — that one estimate suggests it now costs 14 times more to drive a Mirai than a Tesla.

In June 2023, roughly a year before these troubles began to unfold, the Edmonton International Airport and Toyota announced an "innovative partnership" to see 100 of the vehicles added to the airport's fleet. Stephen Beatty, vice-president of corporate with Toyota Canada, said in a release that the Mirai will join regular battery electric, plug-in hybrids, and other vehicle technologies in a "multi-technology approach" to reduce carbon emissions and accelerate hydrogen demand. Myron Keehn, president and CEO of the airport, added in the same release that the 100 Mirais will help "kick-start" the region's 5,000 hydrogen vehicle challenge.

"The future is here, and it's being developed at YEG," Keehn said.

Battery-electric cars (think Tesla, Lucid, or Rivian) may seem to have won the tech battle to electrify North America's vehicle fleet — more than one million EVs were sold in 2023 versus fewer than 5,000 sales of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, for example.

But policymakers still see huge potential in hydrogen fuel-cells. In 2023, President Joe Biden announced US$7 billion for seven hydrogen hubs to fuel a future hydrogen passenger-car fleet, which could seed demand across the continent, including in Canada. And earlier this month, Natural Resources Canada invested $7.5 million in 35 projects aimed at accelerating electric vehicle adoption, including $300,000 for Edmonton Global towards planning a hydrogen corridor in Western Canada for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

"It's international companies like Toyota that said, 'We think hydrogen is going to be the way of the future,'" Edmonton Global CEO Malcolm Bruce told Taproot at a June event to showcase the Mirai to journalists (before news broke of the California lawsuit and the Olympic protest). "They produce the hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai. You know, we brought it into the region through the airport. And it's really, I think, indicative of kind of that genesis of trying to drive the future fuel economy."

California launched its hydrogen highway plan in 2013, investing more than US$250 million to build a market, with refuelling infrastructure recognized as the seed needed to create demand. A central part of the push was the Toyota Mirai, the most easily acquired hydrogen vehicle on offer. But in the decade since, California now sees fewer than 4,000 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles sold each year, compared to nearly 400,000 battery-electric vehicles in the same period.

Bruce said he doesn't see California's experience with hydrogen as a cautionary tale for Alberta. Instead, he said, the state's experience underlines the Edmonton region's inherent advantages when it comes to hydrogen. California has built some hydrogen pipelines but is more constrained than Alberta, which is the largest hydrogen producer in Canada and has infrastructure in the works.

"(California) built fuelling stations that are half-ton capacity," Bruce said. "Fuelling stations being built in Alberta are going to be six times (that) capacity, which means that ... you can refuel about 200 trucks a day, which means it's more economical."

Though California has struggled to increase consumer adoption of hydrogen or build the infrastructure that such adoption would need, the ideas behind the push in general and the Toyota Mirai, in particular, are sound, said Peter Frise, a professor in the mechanical, automotive, and materials engineering department at the University of Windsor in Ontario.

"Apparently Edmonton Airport is a very unique place in Canada, and it has an absolutely fantastic infrastructure for hydrogen, so it makes sense to have vehicles that operate in a fleet mode and a return-to-base mode (that) need hydrogen to be based in Edmonton," Frise said. "You've got the fuel."

The Edmonton airport has a refuelling station for the vehicles. As of Aug. 14, there is one commercial hydrogen refuelling station in Alberta, located just south of Edmonton.

Neither Toyota Canada, Edmonton Global, nor the Edmonton International Airport would comment on the scientific criticism of the Mirai's positioning as part of a net-zero goal for the Paris Olympics (nor would they comment on the California lawsuit).

Hydrogen is not a singular product but rather has greener and dirtier variants. A large portion of Edmonton's hydrogen supply is currently classified as blue, meaning it is derived from natural gas production, with plans to capture and store the carbon created. In May, experts who advise the City of Edmonton warned in a letter that relying on blue hydrogen may not reduce the city's emissions or costs.

The technological challenge of how to electrify the vehicle fleet is not fully settled, Frise said. Though battery-electric vehicles are currently winning the consumer sales battle versus cars like the Mirai, Frise said they have inherent challenges. For example, they have incredibly complex and heavy batteries that cut efficiency. Such challenges leave room for other technologies.

Hydrogen fuel-cells, Frise said, are just a different form of energy storage to create what is essentially still an electric vehicle, just with a much smaller and lighter battery. Hydrogen stores the energy in place of a battery. Frise noted hydrogen fuel-cells are already in use on ships, spacecraft, and many other applications.

"I think in the long run, hydrogen vehicles will take over," Frise said.

As of 2024, there are only three hydrogen consumer vehicles on extremely limited offer in the whole of North America — the Mirai, the Hyundai Nexo, and a 300-unit release of a specialized Honda CR-V with a fuel-cell, limited to California. In Canada, the Toyota Mirai is available for sale in British Columbia and Quebec.

Frise said the controversies that seem to surround the Toyota Mirai are not about the car itself, which in his estimation is engineered well and works as advertised.

It is not offered for sale in Alberta, though Bruce told Taproot he hopes that might eventually change.