Toyota Mirai Now Holds Guiness World Record for Longest Distance on One Tank of Hydrogen

• A professional hypermiler drove 845 miles (1,360 kilometers) on a single tank of hydrogen

• The Toyota Mirai is EPA rated at 402 miles (647 kilometers)

• Driving in rush hour traffic helped conserve energy enough to beat the previous Guiness World record by more than 290 miles (465 kilometers)

Hydrogen powered vehicles don’t get talked about as much as electric cars for many reasons, bu the Toyota Mirai has now proven that hydrogen technology can currently provide a longer range than battery powered electric cars.

To promote the second generation of its Mirai hydrogen-electric sedan, Toyota invited Wayne Gerdes, who is a professional hypermiler, to attempt to beat the world record of the longest distance covered with a single tank of hydrogen, which he did, by a considerable margin.

The Toyota Mirai is essentially a regular electric car, but instead of storing electricity in a battery, it produces its own by combining hydrogen and oxygen in a process that also creates water as a by-product.

The record-breaking run was held over two days on the 23^rd and 24^th of august 2021. Gerdes and a passenger started the journey by leaving the Toyota Technical Center in Gardena, California and heading to San Isidro and Santa Barbara, before returning to their starting point for the night.

The next day saw them driving down the San Diego freeway between Los Angeles and Orange County in the morning and the evening.

The heavy traffic conditions they were submitted to actually helped them, since hydrogen and electric cars are more efficient at lower speed, as opposed to gasoline powered vehicles, which usually burn less fuel at highway speeds.

The Mirai was able to drive for 845 miles (1,360 kilometers) before running out, which was certified by Guiness World Records since the organisation had sealed the tank before the test began.

This range is more than twice what the Mirai is rated for, since its EPA range is only of 402 miles (647 kilometers), but it goes to show that people living in areas with lots of stop and go traffic can expect much more from their Mirai.

The battery electric vehicle with the longest EPA range is the Lucid Air Dream Edition, with 520 miles (837 kilometers). It would be interesting to see if it could beat this record in the same conditions.

Despite this, hydrogen cars are less popular due to the cost of the refilling infrastructure that make a single hydrogen station cost well upwards of one million dollars to install.