Consumer Reports Tests Toyota Mirai, Rains on Hydrogen Parade

Humans use H2 for a number of things, including to power rockets and make nuclear bombs. You may encounter it every day in toothpaste, some cleaning products and of course balloons. Despite the technology existing for about a decade, nobody has put the hydrogen-powered car into mass production.

The reason? It's too expensive. Being the industrial giant that it is, Toyota has seemingly solved all the problems with the Mirai, which costs less than a Tesla Model S yet has better range.

Consumer Reports' review of the car is the most realistic one yet, casting clouds of doubt over the project. According to them, production numbers are very low because the Mirai is assembled by hand at the Japanese factory that used to make the Lexus LFA.

By the end of 2017, the company hopes to sell 3,000 in coastal US cities, but that's only a drop in the ocean compared to the tens of thousands of electric cars that are sold every year by many companies. CR also points out that there are only about a dozen hydrogen filling stations in America. If you don't happen to live near one, good luck with that!

Provided that you live in California, the Mirai can be yours for $57,000, not including incentives. This is the first time a hybrid car was available for purchase, and you can also lease one for $500 per month for the first three years.

There's no question that the Mirai looks like the car of the future, straight out of one of Isaac Asimov's books. Toyota is the company that put hybrids on the map, but it might be too soon for hydrogen.