Hydrogen Mirai is not in great demand, and there is almost no refueling infrastructure even in the USA
Toyota has many hit cars: the Corolla is a global bestseller, the Corolla Cross is very popular in Japan and Europe, the Camry and RAV4 are icons of their classes, and the same can be said about Land Cruiser. But not all models of the Japanese company are popular: the hydrogen Mirai is an anti-example.
Not all Toyota cars are successful and popular.
The first-generation car was not in great demand, but Toyota decided to release a second-generation model. But this has changed little: in comparison with gasoline cars and even electric cars, the demand is negligible. This was noted by Toyota CTO Hiroki Nakajima during the Japan Mobility Show 2023. He said that hydrogen refueling stations are difficult to implement, and this limited sales of the Mirai – they were “not successful.” According to Nakajima, the hydrogen car is well suited to travel on specific routes that have appropriate refueling stations. Naturally, with this approach, you can simply forget about freedom of movement. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are only 57 hydrogen refueling locations in the country, all of which are located in California.
To be fair, it should be noted that the second-generation Mirai is still more popular than its predecessor: in September of this year, 2,604 second-generation Mirai sedans were sold in the United States, while the first-generation car never sold more than 2,000 units per month.
However, the failure of the Mirai among consumers does not at all mean Toyota’s refusal to continue work in the field of hydrogen transport and related power plants. For example, Toyota is working not only on new fuel cells but also on hydrogen internal combustion engines. As for the Mirai specifically, the company does not comment on the future of this model.
As for Russia, we are also working on hydrogen transport, and KamAZ is the most active in this area: it is going to produce hydrogen trucks and buses.
