原文

Toyota's Hydrogen Future Is Crumbling As Owners File Lawsuits, Call For Buybacks

Frozen pumps. Skyrocketing fuel costs. Plummeting resale values. Here's why owners who bought into Toyota's hydrogen dream feel "cheated and misled."

Apr 18, 2024 at 12:18pm ET

By: Rob Stumpf

Mirai means "future" in Japanese. When Toyota made a big bet that hydrogen was the future of driving, naming its first hydrogen-powered Fuel Cell EV the Toyota Mirai seemed a fitting move for those huge ambitions.

Things haven't worked out that way. As early adopters found out, the Mirai wasn't the ideal future that so many wanted it to be. In fact, the crumbling infrastructure and depreciation have some owners calling on Toyota for a buyback—and even filing lawsuits over their experience. Today, many of them are furious, feeling deceived over buying a car they felt had immense potential but never got the fueling infrastructure necessary to back it up. 

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Toyota's big bet on hydrogen

More than any other automaker, Toyota put a huge bet on hydrogen fuel cell cars starting in the early 1990s. But fueling has proven to be a major challenge, and so far, the future of hydrogen for passenger cars looks grim. 

"There [is] no longer any hydrogen fuel available in San Francisco where I live. Toyota continues to sell this vehicle. How is this acceptable?" said Shawn Hall, one of several Mirai owners who spoke to InsideEVs. "Besides the South San Francisco station, the next closest stations are 40 miles one way to Sunnyvale, or 15 miles [across either the Golden Gate or Bay Bridges, which means] paying a bridge toll of $8.75 or $7 in addition to traffic, time, and wasted fuel. And even though the online map or Fuel app within the Mirai console says there is available fue。

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Contact the author: rob.stumpf@insideevs.com