Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell priced: $63K for three years
Toyota’s hydrogen-fueled Mirai now has a price: $1750 per month over three years and 60,000km.
Toyota has announced it will be leasing the first 20 versions of its fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) to interested government and industry fleets in the next step of its hydrogen evolution.
The $1750 monthly price includes all fuel – if refueling at Toyota’s recently-opened Hydrogen Centre in the west of Melbourne – but servicing is another $2693 over the period of the lease.
The all-up price of $65,693 works out at more than $1.09 per kilometre, assuming owners utilise the maximum limit of 20,000km per year.
But Toyota says it’s an important step in the inevitable shift towards zero-emissions vehicles.
Toyota says hydrogen fuel cell tech as an important part of Australia’s electrified mix moving forward. The company has even said FCEV technology makes sense for future LandCruisers and other off-roaders such as the Hilux and Prado.
“With the introduction of the zero-emission Mirai FCEV and its use by pioneering organisations, Toyota is continuing that journey as we aim to achieve zero emissions from our vehicles by 2050 under the global Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050,” said Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing Sean Hanley.
As with Hyundai’s Nexo – the first FCEV certified for sale in Australia – the focus is on governments and fleets, who can potentially use the vehicles for PR and marketing as much as transport.
“We’ve certainly had local interest around local government, some fleet customers and even some large fleet customers,” said Hanley.
Toyota says private buyers aren’t on the radar but if someone was particularly interested they would assess it “on a case by case basis”.
“Everyone is interested in how they can reduce their CO2 footprint … we’re keen to talk to anyone who’s interested.”
The Mirai has a hydrogen fuel cell under the bonnet capable of producing 128kW of electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen.
There is also a 1.2kWh lithium-ion battery pack for storing excess energy and storing electricity from regenerative braking.
The fuel cell and battery power a single electric motor mounted in the rear of the car and driving the rear wheels.
The motor makes 134kW and 300Nm and drives through a single speed reduction gear.
The Mirai’s $1750 monthly lease price is also a few hundred dollars more per month than a mid-sized Mercedes-Benz C-Class or BMW 3-Series, each of which starts at a bit over $70,000 drive-away. That suggests the Mirai might be priced at close to $100,000 if it were on sale, although Toyota has no plans to sell the cars outright for now.
Instead the top-selling brand is maintaining ownership – and, therefore, control – of the vehicles as the FCEV tech is still in its infancy.
Toyota says it’s all about keeping the Mirai offering as “simple as possible” with a single model with a generous spread of equipment.
As well as 19-inch alloy wheels it gets an 8.0-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.3-inch centre infotainment screen incorporating Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
There’s fake leather, a 14-speaker JBL sound system and a suite of active safety gear including auto emergency braking (AEB), blind spot warning, traffic sign recognition, 360-degree camera and rear cross traffic alert.
