Toyota Mirai FCEV tech in dealerships by 2030

The Toyota Mirai is shaping up to be the first fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) available for private customers to purchase in Australia as Toyota ramps up efforts to utilise the clean fuel in its future model line-up.

While the Mirai and rival Hyundai Nexo have taken part in low-volume trials in Australia – there are just 34 Mirai FCEVs on the road and 27 examples of the Nexo – neither has been offered for regular sale by the two brands that are investing heavily in hydrogen technology globally and in Australia.

But Toyota Australia vice-president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, has now revealed that the Mirai will be available in dealerships by the end of the decade.

“Over the next five years Mirai will become a sales car within our dealer network,” said Hanley, who late last year said the car was “probably a 2030-plus horizon”.

“There’s just not enough infrastructure for hydrogen at this stage to launch it en masse. However … there are specific areas where we think we can sell it and we’re looking at that.”

The current Mirai uses a single 134kW/300Nm electric motor to drive the rear wheels. Two hydrogen tanks supply a fuel-cell that performs a chemical reaction to create electricity.

The technology is pitched as the ultimate zero-emissions solution because refuelling times are commensurate to petrol and diesel vehicles and the only emissions are heat and water.

However, the cost of the fuel-cell system and the lack of refuelling infrastructure – as well as the price and availability of hydrogen – are currently making the technology a tough sell.

Still, Toyota believes the clean fuel will play a role – with the Mirai leading the way.

The car-maker is also running a trial in Australia with a hydrogen-fuelled combustion-engined HiAce, and is studying other hydrogen ICE applications with vehicles such as LandCruiser and HiLux.

The Mirai FCEV and potentially the Hydrogen HiAce would sit alongside a growing list of hybrid and electric vehicles as part of the brand’s “multi-pathway” approach to offer various technologies as the world looks to reduce CO2 emissions.

The Mirai would also provide a crucial first entry into the FCEV market that Toyota believes could play a long-term role for large SUVs and commercial vehicles, including Prado, LandCruiser and HiLux.

“Mirai is our Prius,” said Hanley of the brand’s first hybrid vehicle that arrived in 2001 and forged the path for the now-big-volume petrol-electric technology that the company says will make up more than half its local sales by 2025.

“It’s the start of something great for the Australian automotive market,” he said.

Hanley admits the Mirai would be a low-volume car, in the same way the early Prius sold in tiny numbers (just 137 in its first year).

But he believes the Mirai is an important step in readying Australians for an alternative to the battery-electric vehicles that are currently dominating the zero-emissions space.

“Hydrogen and fuel-cell electric technology is being used in the heaviest of trucks and buses right now around the world very successfully,” said Hanley.

“In the fullness of time, if you were able to bring a fuel-cell electric vehicle to your heavier commercial vehicles then you tick a lot of boxes of what Australian consumers want.”

Describing it as “the perfect solution”, Hanley says hydrogen fuel-cell has numerous advantages over battery-electric vehicles, which Toyota is also investing heavily in; the company recently launched its first EV in Australia, the Toyota bZ4X, and plans to launch another two by 2026.

“[Hydrogen fuel-cell] can tow, it’s got range, you fill up in five minutes and by 2035 it’ll be like going to … a fuel station,” he said.

Of course, the big question for the Mirai is how much it would sell for.

Slow demand in the United States has led to significant price drops and discounts, with Toyota now selling the five-seater from $US50,190 ($A76,460) plus on-road costs.

A similarly-sized Tesla Model 3 sells from $US38,990 ($A59,400).

Hanley says that while pricing hasn’t been discussed “any car you launch has to be competitive”.

“I would think it’d have to be fairly competitive to BEVs,” he said.

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