The advancements we’ve made in electrical storage and electric motors clearly indicates that the combustion engine will eventually become a thing of the past. Imagine, if you will, a reality where gas stations don’t exist. Instead, we’ll have charging stations or hydrogen stations. The bottom line is, when we get to that point, we’ll have completely renewable energy sources and just about every car on the road will put out zero emissions. So when will this future be? Toyota->ke88 says it’s coming sooner than later, as a recent report says it plans to reduce new-car CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2050.

Toyota’s Senior Managing Officer has gone on record saying: “You may think 35 years is a long time, but for an automaker to envision all combustion engines as gone is pretty extraordinary.” And, let’s not beat around the bush – it does sound a little far-fetched, but you have to keep in mind just how far the company has come in such little time. Toyota did invent the marketplace for hybrid vehicles->ke147 with the Prius->ke231 back in 1997. Toyota’s plans don’t include taking the same path as Tesla on its journey to becoming a zero-emissions manufacturer. Instead of focusing on battery-powered vehicles like the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf, Toyota wants to build on the concept->ke169 of hydrogen powered vehicles like the Toyota Mirai.

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Why it matters

Toyota has announced a target of selling around 3,000 Mirai models in 2017 and upping that number to 30,000 by 2020. That being said, Toyota is serious about expanding the use of hydrogen as a fuel. The biggest thing to overcome will be providing enough range between fill-ups. Hydrogen has a little less than half of the energy content of gasoline, and it isn’t widely available like gasoline is. That’s not to say it won’t be widely available in the future, but we still have a long way to go. 35 years is a long time, though, so don’t dismiss Toyota's dream for the future. Regardless of how we get there, we will rid ourselves of the dependency on gasoline – it’s just a matter of time. Will Toyota pioneer the Hydrogen market like it did the hybrid market back in 1997 with the Prius? I’m going to say it’s plausible, but what do you think?

Toyota Mirai

Read more about Toyota Mirai here.