Toyota Mirai (2021) – Bliss

Why did you buy a Toyota Mirai?

“Why did I buy a Mirai?” Jan-Willem Geurts (45) wonders out loud. “Just because it is a logical next step after my previous car, a Volvo V60 D6 plug-in hybrid,” he says. For Jan-Willem, the logic is unwavering. He thought long and hard before signing the purchase contract for a used Toyota Mirai. But then again: why hydrogen? Why not electric?

Costly and not fun

“Very simple, electric driving is expensive and not special,” says Jan-Willem. Moreover, I live in a neighborhood with old houses and an outdated electricity grid. I could already imagine how I connected my new EV to the power grid and the lights went out in my living room and that of the neighbors. Hydrogen seemed particularly interesting to me and I live four kilometers from a pumping station. At that time, the KNAC organized an introductory campaign, with which members could win a month of driving a Mirai. I entered and won. This allowed me to get acquainted with the Mirai for a month. A world opened up for me then.”

Nothing at all with Toyota

Although Jan-Willem is a car enthusiast through and through, he says that Toyota always left him completely cold. “I had nothing with Toyota, absolutely nothing. I think old English cars are fantastic. I still think back with great pleasure to the Range Rover I had. What a car that was! And I also think Swedish cars are fantastic. I still miss that V60 a bit, I have a Volvo 242 GT that belonged to my grandfather and the Saab 99 Turbo that I bought not so long ago is an absolutely iconic car. But Toyota? No, that month with the Mirai was my first introduction to the brand. That left me wanting more.”

Button cut

That month made Jan-Willem decide: he was sure that he would become a hydrogen driver and that his hydrogen car would be a Toyota Mirai. And what does chance want? “I live three kilometers from a showroom full of used Toyota Mirais,” he grins. That showroom belongs to Eindhoven entrepreneur Jos van Stratum, who already talked about his firm belief in the hydrogen car in general and the Toyota Mirai in particular in AutoWeek in 2020. It didn’t take long before Van Stratum managed to convince Jan-Willem that you shouldn’t expect any problems with a Mirai in the long term. “I had already understood then that the technology of such a Mirai was very interesting,” says Jan-Willem. “Look, as an enthusiast I still prefer a big six- or eight-cylinder engine, but if I’m very honest, I don’t really need that for the 40,000 business kilometers that I drive. I often have a client sitting next to me or else I’m on the phone. Then electric driving is fine, and hydrogen is a very interesting alternative. You don’t have to use the charger, you can just refuel. It actually resembles driving LPG, which I remember from my Range Rover.”

Water is the only emission

To make a long story short: Jan-Willem bought a Mirai at Ebby Road. To be precise, a 2021 copy, in Heavy Metal color, with just over 5,000 kilometers on the odometer and an abundance of luxury on board. From seat heating to DAB+ and from a silky smooth CVT automatic transmission to equally comfortable leather on the seats. What Jan-Willem likes best is the famous H2O button on the dashboard, which allows the Mirai to release its ’emissions’ – water: “A car with water as its only emission, isn’t it fantastic that that is possible? And that Toyota manages to get it on the road in style and reliability? A Mirai is not cheap, but what impressive technology!”

Throwing and throwing

After a few months with the Mirai, Jan-Willem’s view of Toyota has completely changed. “I already have great respect for Toyota,” he says. “This Mirai is not only incredibly beautiful, it also drives very well. Silent and effortless, but if you want, you can also throw and throw it – despite its size. It is full of options that all work fine and the weight distribution is just right. Driving the Mirai just feels like real driving. And when you know that Toyota simply gives a ten-year warranty on such a car, you can’t help but feel admiration. I am not ashamed to admit that I now think Toyota is a very cool brand. I would like to go to Japan!”

Must be better

As mentioned, Jan-Willem only lives a few kilometers from a hydrogen filling station. That is a crucial advantage and he is well aware of it. “I can usually get by just fine because I can refuel close to home. There is a special H2 app for hydrogen drivers and we also have a regional app group, which also includes the operators of the hydrogen station. Unfortunately, this sometimes suffers from technical problems, but these men always respond very quickly and they inform us well. It only became difficult for me when I recently had to go to Besançon for work. You can simply forget that with a Mirai. Fortunately we have other cars, but it is strange that in France you cannot fill up with hydrogen anywhere, except in Paris, while in Germany you can do so on almost every street corner. That should be possible better, right?”

Hydrogen drivers are often also quite concerned about the environment. Does that also play a role for Jan-Willem – a self-proclaimed lover of Range Rovers –? That turns out to be a painful question. “I think you should drive your business kilometers climate neutrally if possible,” he says. “Just like I think you should reuse things. I have set up a foundation, Sports for Children, that collects old sports equipment from schools in the Netherlands, repairs it and donates it to schools in countries where they can put it to good use. With our refurbished sports equipment we can get children in Eastern Europe and, for example, India to play sports again.”

Range Rover in flames

So you could say that he is very concerned with the world around him. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. Gritting his teeth, he tells what happened to him last year, when he still had a twenty-year-old Range Rover in his driveway. “My Range Rover was set on fire in the middle of the night and someone put the logo of a well-known environmental movement on the facade. Unfortunately, they didn’t think about the fact that the car was next to the front door, or they didn’t care. So our house also caught fire and could only be extinguished in time,” says Jan-Willem. That same night, two more SUVs went up in flames in Eindhoven. His city even made the national news that day and although Jan-Willem emphasizes that he did not end up in a Mirai due to intimidation, that night is still in his mind. “That is no longer intimidation, but downright an attempt at manslaughter,” he says. “And that because someone has a car that you don’t like? My mind really can’t understand that. That goes not one, but a hundred steps too far. This should not have preceded it, but I am happy with my Mirai and I want to drive it for a long time. I chart my own course, I drive on hydrogen for the environment, but especially for my pleasure.”

Make your own electricity

While the whole world is embracing electric driving, Toyota saw hydrogen as a solution to allow the general public to drive emission-free, without worries about range. The Mirai was introduced in 2014, but Toyota’s hydrogen technology had already undergone a development process of more than twenty years. The Toyota Mirai is an electric car, but the electricity it uses does not come from a charging station. The Mirai makes its own electricity, from a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen. The result is a car that can travel more than 600 kilometers on one tank and that emits water. You could just drink what comes out of the exhaust of a Toyota Mirai. The technology worked flawlessly from the start. The Mirai was only hindered by its not very attractive appearance and by the fact that hydrogen refueling was hardly possible in most countries. Oh, and the price of course, because that wasn’t cheap either. In 2021, Toyota launched the second generation of the Mirai. The price was still not cheap, but the Mirai was suddenly no longer an ugly duckling. Refueling is still a problem, but if it is possible, it will be done in a few minutes and you can drive hundreds of kilometers again. No BEV can match that. The Toyota Mirai has matured nicely and drives excellently. If only it were a little more accessible and if only the infrastructure was better. Then the world would look very different.