Toyota: Zero-emission car will have longest range

Toyota says it will have the longest-range zero-emissions vehicle on the market when its new Mirai comes to market.

Mirai is powered with a hydrogen fuel cell — and just got an EPA rating of 312 miles per tank, according to Toyota. By comparison, a Tesla Model S, the longest-range electric car, is rated at 270 miles.

Mirai's range is an accomplishment because in the hydrogen car world, where tank storage is a big issue, those numbers count. Since hydrogen is a gas, not a liquid, it requires bigger tank or ones that can store it at a higher pressure than for gasoline.

EPA also rated Mirai at 67 miles per gallon using its equivalency rating, MPGe, to gasoline-powered cars, Toyota says.

Toyota is among a handful of automakers that think hydrogen cars, not pure electric-battery powered ones, are the future. That's because they can be refueled in minutes like conventional cars, not requiring long stops at recharging stations.

"Just as the Prius introduced hybrid-electric vehicles to millions of customers nearly twenty years ago, the Mirai is now poised to usher in a new era of efficient, hydrogen transportation," says Toyota North American CEO Jim Lentz in a statement.

The big problem, of course, is limited refueling stations. California has set out to create a network of 100 hydrogen fuel stations; it hopes to have 46 by the end of the year.

Hyundai and Honda are also developing hydrogen cars. General Motors has fielded test models of them for years.