Hardly anyone wants a hydrogen car: Toyota is now even giving away the failed Mirai. I discovered an (old) food app. And you want them too

Imagine you want to buy a new car – and the manufacturer gives you a big discount and also adds vouchers so that in the end you don’t have to pay anything for the vehicle itself. That does not exist?

Yes, but not with us. In California, USA, the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota is currently offering its hydrogen model Mirai at incredible conditions: instead of the originally estimated $55,000, customers only have to transfer $15,000 to the dealer, and the manufacturer will pay 40,000 euros. Buyers will then receive a fuel voucher worth the amount paid. If buyers use the voucher, they ultimately pay nothing for the car.

Why is Toyota doing this? The Mirai is the second generation of a hydrogen car, which is only available in California in the US. As Toyota explained at the request of the German trade magazine ‘Auto Motor und Sport’, they wanted to use this campaign to generate attention for the car, but also to make room for the new facelift model. Or, as the newspaper speculates, also abolish cars.

Customers are cautious with hydrogen cars

Thanks to its fuel cell drive, the Mirai is technically fascinating, but many potential buyers do not have the right hydrogen filling stations on their doorstep. The “gifted” car is of little use.

Moreover, given the large number of electric cars, many are not convinced of their future viability. Of course, this is also related to the fear of enormous losses in value.

At the beginning of 2023, there were twelve hydrogen filling stations in Switzerland. These were compared with 4,300 public charging points (e-charging stations) with more than 9,000 charging stations for electric cars. In addition, e-cars can be charged easily and relatively cheaply at home or at work, which means that many e-motorists only sporadically depend on public e-charging stations.

The Mirai is therefore not a blockbuster: from 2014 to 2019, Toyota sold only 10,000 Mirai of the first generation, which took some getting used to, worldwide. Since 2020 there is a second generation designed to be more suitable. for the masses and is slightly better received by customers: in Germany alone, a total of approximately 1,100 copies have been handed over to their buyers since the introduction of the new version. But of course that’s not much. Maybe people at Toyota will be happy if the prestige models are on the road and get noticed instead of just sitting in the showrooms of the car dealers.

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