Photo: Toyota
For many years, one particular Toyota model has been the synonym of environmentally friendly cars, and for good reason. We're obviously talking about the Prius, the car that did for hybrids what Tesla did for electric vehicles: it made people aware of their benefits and accept them more easily.
But Toyota failed to embark on the electrification train, choosing instead to delve into the whole hydrogen fuel cell business. In ran a few prototypes until coming up with its first production model that uses this technology: the Mirai. And despite the fact it's a car that runs on liquid hydrogen, its propulsion wasn't really the main talking point.
Nope, its exterior design was. And, to be honest, it's pretty easy to see why. The Mirai looks like it tries to be ugly on purpose. It resembles one of those botched plastic surgery interventions that the receiver instantly regrets. And yet, it was the product of skilled designers who were actually paid for coming up this repulsive mutt.
OK, you might say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we doubt anyone outside of Japan would dare to call the Mirai "beautiful." You could find it "interesting" at best, or maybe "different," but those are the kind of words you normally use when describing someone's baby and you don't want to hurt their feeling, but also don't want to lie.
Well, for some elusive reason, Toyota thinks it can steal some of Tesla's potential 372,000 Model 3 customers by running a series of ads targetted directly at them. Mind you, it's not the first automaker to try something like that with Nissan being the first to go down this path and BMW following shortly. Needless to say, neither was very successful.
That was probably because the former tried to entice people who were in line to buy a state-of-the-art electric vehicle with the current LEAF, which may be a decent EV, but it's far from a technical gadget, while the latter offered them a BMW 330e as an alternative, which is a hybrid that has very little to do with fuel efficiency (despite the claimed mileage of 72 mpg).
Well, Toyota didn't fall too far from the tree, attempting to persuade California residents who Googled "Tesla Model 3" with its hydrogen fuel cell car, as Electrek reports. What the Japanese manufacturer fails to realize is that a lot of those 372,000 reservation holders are already Tesla owners, and this brand has the same cult following as Apple and its iPhone. You can't expect them to switch to Google's Android unless Apple did something to disappoint them really, really badly first. And Tesla did no such thing.
Besides, there's also the small matter of costs. The Model 3 is promising to launch with a $35,000 starting price, while the Toyota Mirai will relieve a Californian buyer of at least $57,500. And say what you want about battery-powered cars, but one thing is certain: we will always have access to electricity, whereas liquid hydrogen, I wouldn't be so sure.
Nope, its exterior design was. And, to be honest, it's pretty easy to see why. The Mirai looks like it tries to be ugly on purpose. It resembles one of those botched plastic surgery interventions that the receiver instantly regrets. And yet, it was the product of skilled designers who were actually paid for coming up this repulsive mutt.
OK, you might say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we doubt anyone outside of Japan would dare to call the Mirai "beautiful." You could find it "interesting" at best, or maybe "different," but those are the kind of words you normally use when describing someone's baby and you don't want to hurt their feeling, but also don't want to lie.
Well, for some elusive reason, Toyota thinks it can steal some of Tesla's potential 372,000 Model 3 customers by running a series of ads targetted directly at them. Mind you, it's not the first automaker to try something like that with Nissan being the first to go down this path and BMW following shortly. Needless to say, neither was very successful.
That was probably because the former tried to entice people who were in line to buy a state-of-the-art electric vehicle with the current LEAF, which may be a decent EV, but it's far from a technical gadget, while the latter offered them a BMW 330e as an alternative, which is a hybrid that has very little to do with fuel efficiency (despite the claimed mileage of 72 mpg).
Well, Toyota didn't fall too far from the tree, attempting to persuade California residents who Googled "Tesla Model 3" with its hydrogen fuel cell car, as Electrek reports. What the Japanese manufacturer fails to realize is that a lot of those 372,000 reservation holders are already Tesla owners, and this brand has the same cult following as Apple and its iPhone. You can't expect them to switch to Google's Android unless Apple did something to disappoint them really, really badly first. And Tesla did no such thing.
Besides, there's also the small matter of costs. The Model 3 is promising to launch with a $35,000 starting price, while the Toyota Mirai will relieve a Californian buyer of at least $57,500. And say what you want about battery-powered cars, but one thing is certain: we will always have access to electricity, whereas liquid hydrogen, I wouldn't be so sure.
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