Toyota has spent millions on a 12,000-acre 'mini town' in Arizona where it works on top secret car tests and no rules of the road apply

Toyota is still determined that FCEV – hydrogen cars – are the future, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is with a giant facility in Arizona.

This proving ground serves as a facility where the company can develop its cars, but it’s also an open-air museum to show would-be buyers what hydrogen cars can do.

This facility is much, much bigger than you can imagine.

And, more importantly, the price tag is just as staggering.

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Inside this 12,000-acre massive facility built by Toyota

Toyota built the ‘Arizona Proving Grounds’ – a massive 12,000-acre test facility in the middle of nowhere in Arizona.

Away from prying eyes, Toyota will be using this facility to test hydrogen cars, but the company also wants this to be the go-to playground for people who want to try hydrogen cars for the first time.

There are a few different vehicles available, including the Mirai, the Tacoma H2 Overlander, and a fuel-cell semi-truck capable of 400 miles of range while hauling 80,000lbs.

They even made a Tundra-based mobile generator that produces potable water and operates silently.

There’s an ongoing industry-wide argument about EVs.

Some companies believe in them, and some don’t.

But it’s interesting to note that, when it comes to hydrogen electric cars, Toyota is one of only a handful of manufacturers that have been saying for a while: ‘this is the way to go.’

At the very least, we certainly can’t blame them for being hypocritical about it, considering they’ve just spent around $50 million to prove their point.

This is how hydrogen cars actually work

We call them hydrogen cars to simplify things, but we shouldn’t forget that hydrogen cars, with exceptions, are still electric.

The key difference is that most EVs are powered by batteries, whereas a hydrogen car is powered by fuel cells.

These fuel cells in an FCEV rely on tanks that are replenished with compressed hydrogen, and that’s where the power comes from.

There are a couple of advantages to this system.

First, hydrogen doesn’t need to be mined, which makes it – theoretically – easier to source than lithium batteries.

The second advantage is that charging an FCEV takes seconds or minutes, while charging a battery electric vehicle still takes longer.

The reason why most automakers aren’t convinced is that turning hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, into fuel is difficult and expensive.

And infrastructure is also a problem, because finding a charging station is still quite hard.