Toyota Mirai 2021 Review

It’s not currently possible to buy the 2021 Toyota Mirai outright. Toyota will lease the car to you, at a cost of $1750 a month, over a three-year term. That works out at $63,000 in full, which is expensive for an eco-friendly flag-waving exercise, to be frank about it.

Customers hand the car back at the end of three years, with nothing left to show for it. There is one particular benefit though. That cost includes the hydrogen fuel as well. But not servicing, which will cost around $2700 – a one-off payment covering regularly servicing at intervals of 12 months or 15,000km.

Toyota is entertaining the possibility of extending the lease, since these cars are fully ADR-homologated, unlike the previous models that were brought to Australia in accordance with a special government dispensation. For that reason, the older Mirai cannot be sold off to the trade in the conventional way.

The new Mirai comes as standard with a 12.3-inch infotainment touch-screen, satellite navigation, a 14-speaker JBL audio system with integrated Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, dual-zone climate control, voice recognition and keyless entry/start.

Additionally, the Mirai features LED headlights, heated/fold-in power mirrors, 19-inch alloy wheels, privacy glass, electrically-adjustable front seats and an auto-dipping rear-view mirror.

Toyota has brought in just 20 units of the Mirai, and they are available in the following colours: Arctic White, Tarmac Black, Liquid Metal, Feverish Red, Force Blue, Silver Rush and Dynamic Blue.

There’s a raft of safety features on board the 2021 Toyota Mirai to match its high-concept powertrain.

Secondary safety kicks off with a rigid structure based on the Toyota New Generation Architecture (TNGA) and a mix of aluminium and ultra-high tensile strength steel. Inside, the car is fitted with seven airbags as standard.

A long list of driver assist/active safety features include pedestrian and (daylight) cyclist detection for the autonomous emergency braking (AEB), intersection assistance, emergency steering assist, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, all-speed adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and auto high beam assist. These features are bundled up in a suite labelled Toyota Safety Sense.

Additionally, the Mirai comes equipped with blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, parking support braking and all-round view monitoring.

One point about the Mirai: it has three hydrogen tanks that collectively contain 5.6kg of hydrogen. The tanks are formed from three layers (one plastic and two carbon-fibre epoxy-resin reinforced plastic) and two of the tanks are located between the axles, although one tank sits behind the rear axle.

Short of an almighty whack in the rear from a fast-moving semi-trailer, the Mirai’s tanks are unlikely to pose any particular risk to driver and passengers as a consequence of a crash.

As yet, there are no crash safety ratings available for the Mirai, but we presume it’s a pretty safe car, given the specifications.

The powertrain layout for the 2021 Toyota Mirai is complex and bulky. Fitting the whole lot in a passenger car – even one that’s nearly five metres long – is no small feat. Doing so with a balanced weight distribution and rear-wheel drive is all the more remarkable.

It starts with a lightweight (25.5kg) fuel-cell stack under the bonnet. Behind that is a hydrogen tank located between driver and front passenger, but inside what would normally be a transmission tunnel.

Another tank runs across the car, under the floor where the rear seat is located. There’s yet another hydrogen tank mounted under the boot floor, behind the rear axle.

The hydrogen is pumped into the fuel-cell stack, where it’s converted back to water – issuing an electron from each atom during that process. The electron is collected along with other electrons from other hydrogen atoms to create an electric charge that’s sent to either a lithium-ion battery behind the rear seat, or directly to the electric motor, which is mounted in a transaxle – integrated with the differential – driving the rear wheels.

There are no drive shafts or universal/constant velocity joints between the motor and the diff. Both components are housed in the one compact unit.

The battery is very small at just 1.2kWh. It would provide just enough power in and of itself to keep the Mirai moving at low speed in traffic for a kilometre or two. It’s the fuel-cell stack that supplies 128kW of the Mirai motor’s total output of 134kW – and 300Nm.

How that all pans out for the driver is like this: The new car is demonstrably quicker in a straight line than its predecessor. It’s certainly not Porsche Taycan quick, but it will stay well ahead of conventional four-cylinder cars on the road up to 100km/h.

Floor it and the Mirai does produce some noise from the air compressor, but the car is quieter in this regard than the old model, which was quieter again than the first-generation Honda’s FCX Clarity, tested back in 2010.

On a very brief back-to-back assessment of the two cars – old and new, on the road and on Toyota’s on-site test track – the new 2021 Toyota Mirai was so far ahead of the old model as to be in a completely different league.

Turn-in is undeniably faster, grip is better, ride is more resolved, and give the new Mirai some welly and you can actually feel the tail twitch. It’s a fairly dynamic car for an eco-sensitive machine.

Riding on Bridgestone Turanza 235/55 R19 tyres, the new Mirai provided that clear rear-wheel drive distinction from the older model. And not just in terms of the traits that enthusiasts care about either.

Where the previous Mirai shook and shivered like a jelly over road-surface irregularities, the new car felt altogether more composed, despite the ride quality of the new car being that much more supple.

On a short stretch of gravel, the new model was much quieter than the old Mirai, with very little audible evidence of gravel spraying up under the body. According to a Toyota staff member, the manufacturer has developed a new material to insulate the insides of the wheel-arches.

While the Mirai has all the typical Toyota visual cues from the driving position, it’s just as practical and easy to use, provided you’re familiar with modern ergonomic functions operated via the large infotainment touch-screen.

About the only thing that might flummox first-time users is the drive mode selector, which operates in much the same way that its counterpart in the Prius does. It’s spring-loaded, so you drag it across to the right and down for ‘Drive’ or up for ‘Reverse’.

After the driver releases the selector, it returns to its default position. There’s a separate button for ‘Park’ on the centre fascia above the selector. It’s not a difficult system to comprehend, even for drivers who have never driven a Prius before.

Unlike the previous Mirai, the new model uses a finger-pull switch to operate the electric parking brake, which is an improvement on the foot-operated parking brake of the earlier car.

In other ways, too, the new Mirai is a marked improvement on the old model, not least of all having the instruments located directly ahead, rather than in the centre.

The driver’s seat is not as softly-cushioned as the seat in the old Mirai, but it’s more supportive overall.

We needn’t labour too long comparing the new model with its predecessor that almost no one in Australia has driven. How does the Mirai compare with, for example, a Camry? Obviously the two are very different to drive, but it’s packaging that really separates the Mirai from the Camry.

Pardon the expression, but the fuel-cell vehicle can’t hold a candle to the Camry for accommodation and internal dimensions.

The rear seat of the Mirai is no place for older people, especially those over about 175cm tall. Adults taking a seat in the rear for the first time are likely to crack their noggin on the way in as well – and possibly on the way out too, if they’re forgetful. And the legroom is not especially huge for a car that is nearly five metres long.

There are two USB ports, two cup holders (in the folding centre arm rest) and adjustable vents back there, at least, so it’s sufficiently amenable once you’re seated. Toyota claims that the Mirai is a five-seater, but it’s hard to conceive how a fifth person could possibly be comfortable in the centre rear seat.

What would be a ‘transmission tunnel’ in any other rear-drive car actually houses a whopping great hydrogen tank, leaving very little room for the fifth passenger to sit comfortably, short of straddling the high tunnel.

Over an 11-year period, I’ve driven fuel-cell vehicles from Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and now Toyota.

The sophisticated powertrain wizardry becomes just a little more practical and appealing with each new iteration sampled, but as much as I’d love to recommend the 2021 Toyota Mirai, it’s not ready for hand-over to mass-market buyers just yet.

Toyota Australia projects a three-year timeframe for buyers in Australia. Maybe, by then, there’ll be at least a few hydrogen pumps dotted across each city.

We can only hope…

How much does the 2021 Toyota Mirai cost?
Price: $1750 per month over three-year lease
Available: Now
Powertrain: Permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 134kW/300Nm (128kW fuel-cell stack)
Transmission: Two-step reduction gear
Battery: 1.2kWh lithium-ion
Range: 650km (WLTP)
Fuel: 0.7kg/100km
Safety rating: Not tested