Toyota Mirai Review (2021) | Coach Car News

The last 10 years should have been nurtured in the realization of this enduring dream of personal transportation, the hydrogen fuel cell car.

Despite the best efforts of many automakers, however, and mainly due to external factors, they didn’t quite go to the script.

It was 2014 when Toyota pulled the covers off its first-generation Mirai hydrogen production car (its Japanese name for “future”). A year earlier, Hyundai had started manufacturing fuel cell cars in small batches, and in 2017 Honda’s second-generation Clarity FCV arrived. Even low-volume, toe-dip hydrogen car pilot projects had been run by people like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Mazda before, but it wasn’t really until the middle of the last decade that anyone one really took what became known seriously. like the FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle).

Turbulent market conditions have since eroded any funds that could have gone into fuel cell development, while huge investments in electrification left little money for longer-term projects. Hydrogen fueling infrastructure has also been slow to develop, even in the developed world. The result ? Mercedes, for its part, canceled its long-running hydrogen car production and development program in 2020, while other brands reduced their own ambitions.

Technical specifications

Model tested: Mirai Design Premium

Price: £ 64,995

Tested price: £ 65,920

Electric motor (s): AC synchronous

Hydrogen storage: 5.6 kg

Driveline arrangement: rear wheel drive

Model tested

Mirai Design Premium

See all specs and rivals

electric motors

Synchronous AC

Drive train arrangement

Rear wheel drive

Couple

221 lb ft (combined)

Energetic efficiency

69.4 mpkg

Couple

221 lb ft (combined)

Energetic efficiency

69.4 mpkg

For some, however, the dream continues, as represented by this week’s test drive topic: the all-new second-generation Mirai. As its competitors move away from hydrogen, Toyota remains committed to the technology as part of a holistic vision of a viable zero-emission transportation system of the future that could include larger and longer passenger cars.