Name: 2024 Toyota Mirai
Brand: Toyota

Toyota Mirai

EPA Range: 402 miles

Toyota Mirai First Drive

Summary

Introduction

Toyota Mirai, the Hydrogen-Powered Luxury Cruiser

This second-generation fuel-cell car boasts impressive tech, but it has very limited practicality

Overview

Toyota may be a newcomer to pure electric cars, but it has decades of experience with hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles. Its Mirai is an electric car, but it uses fuel-cell technology to produce electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, rather than store electricity in a large battery. The hydrogen interacts with oxygen from the outside air inside a stack of fuel cells and through a chemical reaction produces electricity. Water vapor is the only emission.

There is only one other fuel-cell car on the market: The Hyundai Nexo. Both cars are available only in California.

The Mirai is now in its second generation, and this rather unique car has improved significantly with its redesign, as we discovered from the two examples we rented from Toyota to evaluate.

We bought a first-generation Mirai in 2016 and put it through our full road-test program. It proved to be quiet and comfortable, but it was rather clumsy in the handling department and managed a driving range of only 275 miles with full hydrogen tanks.

With the second-generation Mirai introduced as a 2021 model, Toyota has increased the range, upped the power, and lowered the price—all welcome moves. It now starts at $49,500. (We paid $58,415 for our 2016 model.)

The latest Mirai is powered by a 182-hp rear-mounted electric motor. The car stores 5.6 kilograms (12.3 pounds) of hydrogen onboard in three cylindrical tanks. Driving range for the XLE trim is rated at 402 miles, and the heavier Limited version is rated at 357 miles. There is a small 1.24-kilowatt-hour battery for storing energy that’s recouped from the regenerative braking and for supplementing power at low speeds.

Given that a kilogram of hydrogen is roughly the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas, and the Mirai’s rated range, theoretically, consumption works out to be 74 mpg equivalent (MPGe) for the XLE and 65 MPGe for the Limited, according to Toyota.

The new Mirai is a sleek, luxurious sedan based on a rear-wheel-drive platform Toyota uses for its high-end Lexus models. Below are our first impressions based on both versions.

Impressions

The Mirai rides like a luxury vehicle. This Lexus-based, rear-wheel-drive sedan serves up a majestic ride that makes passengers feel well-isolated from bumps and undulations.

With well-suppressed road and wind noise, and no engine noise, the Mirai’s cabin is exceptionally quiet. The only unusual noise is a swooshy sound as soon as you shut the car off and witness the discharging of the water vapor, which leaves a small puddle on the ground.

It’s immediately clear that the Mirai is adept at carving corners. It handles like a genuine rear-drive luxury sedan (think: BMW 5 Series), with good steering response and road holding that inspires confidence. Plus, the suspension keeps the body controlled, limits unwanted motions, and is unfazed by midcorner bumps.Acceleration is smooth and quiet—typical of EVs. However, the Mirai doesn’t feel as snappy as most EVs, which launch off the line with real zip. But then, with only a modest 182 hp for a hefty 4,300-pound car, you can’t expect a rocket ship.

Whereas EVs take hours to charge (unless using DC fast charging in public places where replenishing can take up to an hour), fuel-cell vehicles get clamped to a hydrogen dispenser and fill their tanks in a few minutes, similar to how gas is pumped into a conventional vehicle. Another crucial difference is that while EVs can be charged at home, fuel-cell vehicles cannot. From a fueling speed perspective, fuel-cell vehicles have an advantage over EVs, but the elephant in the room is the scarcity of hydrogen stations, which means the Mirai has to remain on a tight leash rather than roam freely.

It doesn’t help the cause that the average cost of a kilogram of hydrogen, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas, costs $16.50. That explains why both Hyundai and Toyota provide complimentary hydrogen fill-ups for buyers and lessees. Mirai lessees get $15,000 worth of fill-ups for three years. Buyers get that same amount but for six years. At the average price of hydrogen this amounts to over 900 kilograms, which translates to covering about 66,000 miles for the XLE.

High-quality materials surround the Mirai’s swanky cabin. Soft-touch surfaces and solid switchgear abound, as well as synthetic leather for the seats, with attractive stitching. A cabin with this ambience wouldn’t be out of place in a Lexus.

At a length of 196 inches, the Mirai is a large sedan. Rear-seat room, however, is shockingly tight. That’s because one of the hydrogen tanks lies in the tunnel that otherwise would host the drive shaft, and the seat—which doesn’t fold down—is squeezed from behind by the hybrid battery. Likewise, the trunk is tiny because the hybrid battery ahead of it and the electric motor underneath it. This is a stark difference compared with expanded cabin volumes offered by most EVs that use large battery packs mounted below the floor.

We weren’t enamored with the flush buttons for audio and climate control functions. The touchscreen is a far reach for the driver, and it’s easy to get bogged down in the myriad screen displays. The gear selector is identical to the one in the Prius and is easy enough to use.