Toyota to sell fuel-cell cars within three years

Toyota Australia has revealed that it intends to sell hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to private and business buyers within three years, even though the all-new 2021 Toyota Mirai has got off to a slow start generating buzz in the community.

At the local launch of the Mirai in Melbourne this week, Toyota Australia’s sales and marketing chief, Sean Hanley, said there was enough apparent interest in the new technology to encourage the car-maker to develop a business plan that would see fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) on Aussie roads sooner rather than later.

“It’s clear to us that Australians will adopt these technologies,” Hanley said.

“This idea that Australia’s slow to adopt these technologies is not quite correct ... They will adopt these technologies providing they’re fit for purpose and deliver all the capabilities required in their area.”

Asked whether the new Toyota Mirai – which can currently only be leased – would sell in the conventional definition of the word, Hanley admitted there were different options open to the company, including car sharing, subscription and even traditional purchasing.

“At some point we would like to bring this as a mainstream sale car,” he said.

“It is our complete commitment to our own dealer network that at some point as infrastructure allows – I’d like to think two to three years, I could be wrong on that, that’s ambitious, could be longer – but at some point this would become a car that they would sell from the showroom.”

The company anticipates the take-up rate of the high-tech, zero-emissions FCEVs will be much faster than was the case for its hybrid models, starting with the original Toyota Prius, and has even indicated that a hydrogen-powered version of the next-generation Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series due to launch this year could be in the mix.

That’s despite the car-maker indicating it has no firm orders for the new Toyota Mirai yet.

“We sold a handful of cars in the first year,” Hanley said of the first-generation Prius.

“Yet hybrids are now mainstream, and achieving record sales – more than a quarter of our total volume here.

“Well, the path to mainstream sales with fuel-cell electric vehicles will be quicker than for hybrids. To that end, we expect Mirai to become more readily available to our dealers within two to three years, accelerating as the refuelling infrastructure grows.”

The refuelling infrastructure is one hurdle for customers to adopt the new powertrain science. Getting the word out about the Mirai is another.

So far, according to Hanley, actual customer interest in the Mirai has yet to materialise.

“Look, we had initial interest [in] generation one [of the Mirai]. I can’t put a number on the amount of interest, we’ve certainly had local interest around local government in particular, some fleet customers and in fact even some large fleet customers,” he said.

“Everybody is interested in how they can reduce their CO2 footprint, as indeed Toyota is saying. We’re keen to talk to anyone who is interested but, certainly in the fleet area, we’ve had quite a bit of the interest, not only around the Mirai but hybrid as well.”

That hasn’t carried through for the all-new Toyota Mirai, however. Even though the news that the new Mirai was confirmed for Australia and would be launched this month, Toyota has not taken orders for the 20 cars shipped in.

“We’re in discussions with different customers around the opportunity, so we haven’t allocated them at this point,” Hanley said.

“We haven’t formalised arrangements at this point, but we have interest.”

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