Toyota’s hydrogen car arrives

Toyota has taken another step towards a hydrogen-powered future with the arrival of the first Mirai fuel cell cars in the UK.

The vehicles, which landed at Toyota import centre at Portbury, near Bristol, are part of the first consignment to reach Europe, ahead of the Mirai’s official launch in September.

Toyota claims the Mirai (it means ‘future’ in Japanese) signals the start of a new age of vehicles.

Hydrogen fuel is stored on board the Mirai in high pressure tanks and used to generate electricity in a chemical reaction with oxygen a fuel cell.

The energy produced is used to drive the car, with the only tailpipe emissions being water vapour.

Refuelling from empty takes between three and five minutes at the pumps and the Mirai has a driving range of up to 300 miles.

Karl Schlicht, Executive Vice President Toyota Motor Europe, said: “As with Prius 15 years ago, we are proud to bring yet another ground-breaking innovation to the marketplace.

“This marks the debut of a new age for clean mobility, a turning point in the history of the automobile.”

These are also pioneering days for hydrogen fuel cell cars in the UK because there are only a handful of refuelling stations.

Toyota is not first to market with the a hydrogen fuel cell car in the UK. The Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell is already on sale, sadly only in left hand drive.