Toyota’s Mirai FCV is apparently kicking ass at sales, company considering more fuel-cell vehicles

Great news treehuggers and fuel-cell hydrogen activists!

Toyota’s latest Mirai, the company’s latest hydrogen fuel-cell powered passenger car for select markets, is apparently selling quite well, so well in fact that the Mirai’s chief engineer, Yoshikazu Tanaka, officially announced to be interested in more hydrogen-powered cars.

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Obviously, Mr. Tanaka kept his cards closer to him than a trick poker player at a tournament in terms of details, but additional fuel-cell vehicles could be viable within the next ten to twenty years, according to him.

The biggest challenge facing the growth of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles is the lack of popular infrastructure for hydrogen production. Additionally, hydrogen is still expensive to produce, scarcely available, and requires fossil fuels to produce. However, thanks to advances in methods of hydrogen production such as electrolysis, which is the extraction of hydrogen from water using electricity with two submerged electrodes, hydrogen continues to be a promising prospect for renewable energy, especially for the automobile.

So far, Toyota’s registered around 1,900 preorders for the Mirai in the United States, exceeding their expectations. A waiting list has been established to cater to the capabilities of production.

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Watch the Mirai Fly

October 01, 2015

While the Toyota Mirai cannot literally fly, it is flying off the virtual shelf! 

Nearly 1,900 people have raised their hand for a Toyota Mirai, exceeding the expected initial production run of the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle.  The Mirai order request portal, which went live just two months ago, is now directing customers to a wait list, as production catches up to this high demand. 

Toyota anticipates an allotment of nearly 1,000 model year 2016 Mirai in the U.S.  The existing order requests are being reviewed, and Toyota will begin placing the first trailblazing customers in the Mirai driver’s seat this month.       

In January 2015, Toyota announced a Mirai global production capacity increase in an effort to satisfy overwhelming demand in all markets.  Potential Mirai customers can still request the car of the future at www.toyota.com/mirai.  A wait list will be created for the next Mirai allotment and potential customers contacted when production is available.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: Toyota and AutoCar