What’s Next for Toyota’s Mirai Car?

Toyota’s tech boss, Hiroki Nakajima, said at a show in Japan that it’s hard to build places to refuel with hydrogen. This has made it tough to sell the Mirai. In the US, there are only 57 hydrogen refueling spots, all in California.

Not all car companies are giving up on hydrogen cars for regular people. Honda made a fuel-cell crossover car. It will come out in the US and Japan next year, but there are not many places to refuel it, just like the Mirai.

The first Mirai didn’t sell a lot, but the new one did well since 2021. It had its best year in 2021. Sales went down in 2022 but are going up again this year. Toyota sold 2,604 Mirai cars by September 2023, up over 80 percent from last year.

Toyota and other car companies are also working on hydrogen engines that burn the fuel. A company showed a race engine that makes 410 horsepower. Toyota also showed a hydrogen buggy at a show in Japan. It could be used in regular cars in the future.

It was a bit surprising when Toyota made a new Mirai. That car uses hydrogen fuel cells, but it didn’t sell well. Still, Toyota kept working on it. Now, two years later, they’re changing their plans. The Mirai didn’t do well, so Toyota is focusing on using this tech for big vehicles.

Toyota and Isuzu said they’re making hydrogen trucks together.

Update: Toyota won’t talk about what’s next for the Mirai car. But they’re not giving up on hydrogen-powered engines. Toyota still wants to make better fuel-cell tech for regular cars.

We asked Toyota about what’s happening with the Mirai. We’ll tell you more if they answer. We also asked if this change affects Toyota’s work on hydrogen engines that burn the fuel.