Toyota: ‘Hydrogen in passenger cars not yet such a success’

Toyota launched a special car about nine years ago: the first Mirai. Certainly not the first passenger car with a fuel cell, but certainly the first to hit the road in significant numbers. Still, it remained a bit of an odd one out. The second generation Toyota Mirai followed in 2020 and was not only able to benefit from a more detailed hydrogen network in various countries, but also appeared less eccentric. It could not have happened that the Mirai has also remained a relative rarity to this day. “We tried with the Mirai, but it wasn’t really a success,” Toyota’s chief technical officer, Hiroki Nakajima, candidly admits, according to reports. Coach.

According to Nakajima, Toyota is not simply resigned to the fact that the Mirai has not really become a commercial success, but in a broader sense to the difficulty of combining hydrogen and passenger cars. Nakajima emphasizes that Toyota still sees a possible role for hydrogen in passenger cars. According to him, if fuel cells and especially the tanks can be made a little more compact, it could still be interesting for passenger transport, because a wider range of different models would then be possible. Nevertheless, Toyota is now shifting its focus somewhat to commercial vehicles. Due to the often fixed routes of trucks, this is easier to anticipate with hydrogen stations, says Nakajima. “Commercial vehicles are the most important in further attempts with hydrogen.”

Here in the Netherlands, spread over the two generations, 213 Toyota Mirai are provisionally registered. The Hyundai Nexo, also equipped with a fuel cell, has a total of 362 units. The chance that you will find a hydrogen car somewhere is therefore not very high.