Toyota Mirai 2015 Review

Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle
Quick Spin
Shizuoka, Japan

Imagine a car whose only emissions are a few droplets of water, a vehicle that's virtually silent in operation and, crucially, takes just five minutes to refuel. As the world's first hydrogen-powered production vehicle, the new Toyota Mirai is a well-integrated, easy-to-drive car that costs around $80,000. Is this the future of the motor car? Toyota thinks so.

When Toyota launched the original Prius in 1997 it was the first ever mass-produced hybrid car, and it went on to sell more than five million units.

Toyota hopes the Mirai will begin another legacy, as the world's first mass-produced hydrogen-powered vehicle. Like the Prius, it's not the sort of car that'll get your juices flowing on a sinuous stretch of bitumen snaking through the hills, but in terms of commercialising a future powertrain technology, it does a very tidy job.

There's nothing scary or complicated about the Mirai. Just get in, buckle up, hit the starter button and drive away. For all intents and purposes it could be an everyday petrol car, albeit much quieter.

It accelerates smartly initially, turns easily and all the controls are where you'd expect them. And Toyota has done a great job with the cabin, which sets a new precedent for the brand in terms of fit, finish and dare I say splendour… It's unlike any other Toyota to date.

You feel special sitting in any of the car's four seats, but especially the captain's chair, where the white dashboard flows across the twin touchscreen interfaces, incorporating fancy-pants electrostatic heater controls. Even the gear shifter (which is fast becoming obsolete) is avant-garde in its execution, now merely a tiny square protruding above the temperature controls, an afterthought as opposed to a crucial input device.

The tastefully finished cabin is covered in soft-touch dash materials, loads of white leather and delivers impressive levels of fit and finish. It also has the quietest electric windows ever – we're talking next-gen.

You could quiet easily imagine a Lexus badge on the front of this car.

This sense of luxury extends to ride comfort too, which proved to be supple across acute bumps at low and medium speeds. Interestingly, the sharper hits to the suspension were heard more than felt, but this is exacerbated because the car is inherently quiet.

On a handful of 70km/h corners on the short test track, the Mirai proved be predictable and indeed a bit of fun, its stiff body and composed suspension ensuring a flat attitude through corners. As mentioned, this front-drive Toyota is no apex predator and has unremarkable steering, but is far more wieldy than it looks.

And on that subject, the car's exterior design cannot be avoided. It's brash. It's audacious. And, well, kind of ugly if you ask me. But like the original Prius, there'll be no mistaking this vehicle as floats silently past – and that's what many buyers want. Communicating to all and sundry that you are saving the planet via your choice of transportation is almost as important as doing it.

After this brief test drive in Japan at Fuji Speedway, our second evaluation of the Toyota Mirai since its media launch in late 2014, it's clear that Toyota is serious about hydrogen.

Although powered by a 113kW electric motor and motivating like your garden variety electric vehicle, hydrogen-powered cars like the Mirai differ from EVs like the Nissan LEAF or Tesla Model X in the way they store energy – and crucially the speed in which they can be refuelled. While the latter cars store energy in batteries, the Mirai has two large tanks from which hydrogen is converted to electricity.

In this sense they have an advantage, as they can be refuelled in about four minutes, for a 650km range. We didn’t get a chance to do so, but by comparison electric cars require up to eight hours to fully recharge, and at best take about 30 minutes for an 80 per cent fill at fast-charge points.

The counter-argument is that hydrogen infrastructure is in its infancy – there are only a few filling stations globally. As we also recently reported, Australia looks likely to supply emerging hydrogen markets via brown coal, whose sustainability is not entirely clear.

Clearly, the Toyota Mirai and hydrogen vehicles in general have advantages but because the technology, the logistics and indeed production of the fuel are so new, they're going to take time to germinate.

And will the Mirai ever come to Australia? Toyota says yes, most certainly, but not in the short term.

Company executives said they expect the next-generation Mirai to be offered here if and when hydrogen infrastructure develops, which would be post-2020 based on vehicle life-cycles. Hopefully things like the cramped back seat, heavy weight and small boot will be addressed when V2.0 arrives.

That's a long time to wait too but if this early taste is anything to go by the next-generation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could indeed be the panacea the car industry needs.

For now, Toyota reckons it will be slow going, with predictions of 700 Mirai car sales in 2015, rising to 2000 units in 2016, then 3000 vehicles in 2017. Globally, these are miniscule numbers.

Then again, the Toyota Prius started life as a low volume oddity almost two decades ago. And look at how far that vehicle has come.

2015 Toyota Mirai pricing and specifications:
Price: $80,000 (approx)
Engine: Fuel cell stack and electric motor
Output: 113kW/335Nm
Transmission: Continuously variable
Fuel: Hydrogen (60 litre and 64 litre tank)
CO2: 0g/km
Safety Rating: TBA

What we liked:
>> Sophisticated interior
>> Smooth, quiet motivation
>> Lack of harmful tailpipe emissions

Not so much:
>> It's ugly
>> It's expensive
>> Long wait for Aussies