Toyota’s Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car starts its first production run, and may just represent an all-electric motoring future without “Where do I plug it in?” hassles

When next year’s Kia Soul EV allelectric car was announced by the Seoul-based manufacturer, its claim to fame was a company declared 100-mile range (although the EPA forecasts 93 miles). For vehicles with batteries as their only fuel source, this was something of a breakthrough, though not to drivers accustomed to traveling the better part of 300 miles without worrying about finding a gas station. The trouble is that there have simply not been sufficient battery breakthroughs (with the exception of Tesla’s very expensive long-range bank) to make the all-electric industry more than a sideshow, and a frustrating one at that.

There is another power source, however, that promises far greater ranges and even a smaller environmental impact: fuel cells. Rather than storing electrons in battery banks, fuel cells transform hydrogen gas into electricity, which then runs the car’s motor. Essentially, drivers would pull up to a hydrogen gas station, fill up in roughly the same time required for a conventional gas tank (as opposed to the minimum of 30 minutes required to even marginally charge an all-electric battery), and be on their way. Better yet, the only exhaust from a hydrogen propulsion system is…water. That’s right, instead of exhaust, fuel cells emit H2O, and likely cleaner than the stuff coming out of your tap.

Late last year, Toyota announced the first production hydrogen fuel-cell car ever: its Mirai (“future” in Japanese). Scheduled for a preliminary 900-unit run in 2016—and mostly in California where fuel cell filling stations are available, if scarce—the rollout is at least preliminarily in partnership with French industrial gas giant Air Liquide, which will build a dozen test hydrogen stations across the Northeast starting in May.

At $57,600, the Mirai is roughly price-comparable to Tesla’s entry-level model, though with federal and state green incentives, final dollars can fall to as little as 45,000. The car itself is solid, well-built, looks dependable, and has capable handling, but of course, the point here is not to celebrate the precious few buyers who get to course these things from Studio City in Los Angeles to getaway retreats in Malibu. It is to, at last, greet a technology that has the potential to make electric propulsion more than just a maddening bastard stepchild of traditional gas, and change the planet in more ways than one.