Toyota chief technician: We were not successful with the Mirai

The company is shifting its hydrogen focus more to trucks

Ice cream in February or winter coats in August: Some things just don’t sell very well. This is also the case with the Toyota Mirai, as even Toyota managers now admit. 

“We tried it with the Mirai, but we weren’t successful,” Toyota chief technician Hiroki Nakajima told Autocar . In the future, the group wants to focus more on trucks when it comes to hydrogen.

The Toyota Mirai with fuel cells came onto the market in 2014; the second generation (our cover photo) followed in 2020. But in the whole of last year, no more than 337 units were sold in Germany. And that was already the best year for the hydrogen sedan so far.

In the eight years from the market launch in Germany until today, hardly more than 1,100 Mirai were sold. According to figures from JATO Dynamics, there have been 506 units in Europe so far this year.

Toyota is a pioneer in fuel cell cars with the Mirai (like Hyundai with the Nexo ). But market success has so far been a long time coming. Chief engineer Nakajima also attributes this to the small number of hydrogen filling stations.

It is easier to set up a network of filling stations for medium-sized trucks because they often always travel the same route, says Nakajima. Commercial vehicles are therefore “the most important area to continue with hydrogen.” Pick-ups are also an option.

But Toyota doesn’t want to write off hydrogen cars completely. Attempts are currently being made to make components such as the fuel cell stack and the hydrogen tanks smaller. This means they could also be installed in smaller cars. At almost five meters long, the Toyota Mirai is already a full-sized sedan. At 65,990 euros, the car isn’t exactly cheap either. Smaller fuel cell cars would be cheaper and could therefore achieve larger sales figures.

In addition, the next generation of Toyota fuel cells should only cost half as much as the current one. The efficiency should also increase by 20 percent. According to Nakajima, the new fuel cell stack was developed specifically for commercial vehicles. A stack half the size will also be created so that the technology can also be used in cars.

Instead of cylindrical hydrogen tanks, other tank shapes could be used in the future that make better use of the space in the car. Toyota has developed a flat and a saddle-shaped tank, the latter of which can enclose a drive shaft.