Photo: Toyota
The Toyota Mirai is on its way to do what the Prius did when it first came - set a new trend in green driving and changing the future of how we drive. That is if our infrastructure will allow for that, of course. But things seem to move quite fast, at least in Japan where the demand is forcing Toyota to increase production already.
Yep, the Toyota Mirai will be available in Japan starting this month and the strong demand is reportedly forcing the automaker to invest some 20 billion yen ($165 million) more into fuel cell production at its factory in Aichi Prefecture. We should remind you the Mirai is currently being manufactured (as in hand-assembled) in the defunct Lexus LFA factory.
The capital investment will open up two assembly lines by the end of 2015 as orders seem to exceed the annual capacity of 700 units, thanks to business and public offices willing to acquire Mirai models and become the pioneers in the hydrogen world.
As for the rest of the markets, the Mirai is expected to arrive in the summer of next year at a competitive entry-level luxury sedan price after incentives are applied.
Although many greenheads are anxiously waiting for the Mirai to arrive in dealerships, some believe the fuel cell technology won’t succeed, mostly because of an inexistent hydrogen-pump infrastructure, high production costs and the hydrogen itself, which has to be extracted first from other substances, thus eating some energy, which in some cases comes from fossil fuels.
The capital investment will open up two assembly lines by the end of 2015 as orders seem to exceed the annual capacity of 700 units, thanks to business and public offices willing to acquire Mirai models and become the pioneers in the hydrogen world.
As for the rest of the markets, the Mirai is expected to arrive in the summer of next year at a competitive entry-level luxury sedan price after incentives are applied.
Although many greenheads are anxiously waiting for the Mirai to arrive in dealerships, some believe the fuel cell technology won’t succeed, mostly because of an inexistent hydrogen-pump infrastructure, high production costs and the hydrogen itself, which has to be extracted first from other substances, thus eating some energy, which in some cases comes from fossil fuels.
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