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Toyota Mirai Owners; There Is No Fuel And We Want Out Of These Cars

If you think running out of battery is a bad thing, at least you could plug in almost anywhere. Hydrogen, that game is getting ugly and fast, and Toyota Mirai owners are tired of playing it.

Range anxiety is not just for EV owners. And even now, it is not so much an issue, but you know what is? Hydrogen.

Toyota Mirai owners are reporting massive hydrogen outages, and Toyota has not said anything about how it will help take care of their promising technology. Here is what we know so far.

Toyota Mirai HFCV: The Future?
Mirai in Japanese loosely means the future. Ironically, this "future technology" is falling short of the mark. Mirai is a promising hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that gives petroleum-like fueling time and around 300+ miles of range.

A concept now turned reality has given the world a view of technology and even some a different kind of transportation altogether.

The issue is not the technology though, it is the infrastructure. Just ask the Mirai owners who are now suffering from almost no places to refuel.

Hydrogen Stations: Big Trouble In Little Tokyo
I love everything about the hydrogen idea. I love the range, the economy, the fact that hydrogen is the most abundant element on earth, and that the tailpipe emissions are water. Everything about the car is awesome, EXCEPT.

The infrastructure needed to fuel the cars is almost non-existent. To make matters worse, the limited stations are on the fritz stranding Mirai owners who simply want to enjoy their alternative fuel vehicles.

2016 Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell
Most of the stations are offline due to no hydrogen being available, but that is not even the worst of it. Currently, the way hydrogen is produced is from natural gas reformation. This wildly high energy process makes it very costly to "strip" hydrogen down and store it.

The energy required makes it difficult to process and puts far more strain on the California power grid (if rolling blackouts were not already enough.)

Conclusion
Toyota needs to get it together if hydrogen cars are part of the future they have dreamt about. I have driven them and love the idea, but it needs to get some backing behind it fast, or it will lose all possibility of becoming mainstream,

That is all for today. When you have customers asking to get out of the car they are in, you know that there is a problem. I hope the Mirai owners out there get the help they deserve.

Considering buying a 3rd Generation Prius? Read this first.

Check out this wild new battery tech that Tesla has and why it will forever change the auto industry.

Peter Neilson is an automotive consultant specializing in electric cars and hybrid battery technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Automotive Service Technology from Weber State University. Peter can be reached on Linkedin and you can tweet him at The_hybrid_guy on Twitter. Find his page on Facebook at Certified Auto Consulting. Read more of Peter's stories at Toyota news coverage on Torque News. Search Toyota Prius Torque News for more in depth Prius coverage from our reporters.

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Comments

Hildi Steele (not verified)    August 21, 2023 - 11:50PM

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The information on this article is 100% correct. I bought the car 3 months ago thinking is was such a sweet deal but little did I know it would turn out to be the biggest nightmare of any car I have had in the past. First, the dealer Hamer Toyota in mission hills lied about the range of the car it has yet to hit the 400 mile range the closest I’ve come is 299. Second, the biggest part of the nightmare is getting fuel for this car every time I have to refuel the stations are offline/down you literally go to bed praying that the next day there will be fuel available. Well, I have had to get rental for a week due to no fuel. The stations that have a little bit of fuel are hundreds of miles away and the price of hydrogen gets jacked up to over 34 dollars. How is that the consumers fault that there is no available fuel for these cars? What’s going on Toyota you have lost me as a customer for ever apparently all these complaints are falling on deaf ears! Toyota does not want to do anything about solving the fuel issues for their mirai costumers and hundredths of us are now stuck with these cars. That’s not acceptable Toyota. What will it take for Toyota to do right by their costumers?

Steven Chung (not verified)    October 4, 2023 - 9:09PM

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We need to start a class action lawsuit for all the false promises with the hydrogen cars
I have left my car by the fueling station multiple times because they are out of the station is broken. Not to mention when I bought my car the cost of fuel was $13.90 a liter, 1 yr later it's $39 per liter. This means our fuel card is worth 1/3 of what it was. Complete rip off!!

Steven

Tamara (not verified)    October 17, 2023 - 2:41PM

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I agree hundred percent with class action bc Toyota Mirai is becoming the biggest stress in my daily life. I drive a lot and it costing me almost $70 a day.
This sounds more like fraud rather than a legit product and every time there is shortage of fuel I have spend $20 to find another station to get fuel, my time and my money is waisted on this car
Tamara

S. Basu (not verified)    April 4, 2021 - 8:12PM

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Please don't link to an outdated article, as has been done with the sentence: "Just ask the Mirai owners who are now suffering from almost no places to refuel."

Prsnep (not verified)    April 4, 2021 - 8:35PM

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This is a hit piece intended to discourage FCV adoption. WHERE was the outage? Where are the links to news reports?

Jeff (not verified)    September 12, 2023 - 3:14AM

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I waited 15 minutes and the line at the Thousand Oaks station didn't move. Station reports 80kg of H2, but it was 20 minutes between cars for the high pressure tank to re-pressurize. This is unacceptable. Toyota, your partners are making you look incompetent. Do something about this!!!

wolf Wigo (not verified)    May 27, 2021 - 6:15PM

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I drove to Bay Area last weekend. Every hydrogen
Station was offline. Some said limited, and there was min 1 hour wait when trying to get hydrogen.
Everyone in line said this has been this way for a while now. I had to go to 7 stations and then wait an hour - also it didn’t fill up my tank all the way and I barely got home. This needs to be fixed. In SoCal it is much better.

Nightmare (not verified)    August 25, 2021 - 1:28AM

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I owned the car for over a year, it has been a Nightmare. Hydrogen stations are VERY limited, broken, or out of fuel. Kinda like the oil crisis in the 70s, but year round. I had to wait 90 mins in line to fill, rarely do I fill with no one in line. Before you buy this car, go look at the stations to see the lines and talk to an owner.

Mirai Class Action (not verified)    September 21, 2021 - 1:18PM

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Anyone know if there is Class Action Lawsuit on this issue, us Mirai owners got sold on a technology that is not supported by the Gov, Car Manufacture, etc, many of us are stuck with a $40K paper weight that can't be drive due a lack of fuel, broken fuel station, and over 1 hour wait for refueling. There is a crisis with owning a Hydro car.

Winston cao (not verified)    November 4, 2021 - 11:18AM

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I really need help ..! I bought Toyota Mirai, fist this mislead on the miles, second thing price set for the hydrogen same county differential $3.83 that cannot accepted the rip off as customers inconvenience, the biggest thing they never have enough hydrogen for the cars!! The last thing cannot accepted because most in the time their website show online and I drove at least 15-30 miles to the station and the station down (because the psi presser low) second thing the station error...etc! All those conditions as consumers like me really depression.. anger, emotion., stress out
..all those situations who respond for that no such thing spend money buy a car change life! So this Toyota Mirai cannot walk away with all benefits without customer’s problems! So please advise I so stressful I cannot stand on the street in the middle of the night pray I can get hydrogen to drive home!!

Jacob Leathem (not verified)    March 25, 2022 - 3:33PM

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I am a single father of two daughters and actually got a little bit of money from a relative who passed away and at 40 was able to finally do something nice for my girls and give them a once in a life time surprise. Picked them up and went car shopping where both cars got paid in full on the spot. Snaked into buying two 2017 Mirai's and the girls loved them and they were very nice and good looking cars.

That joy lasted just 2 weeks and then the nightmare ensued and what was suppose to be a memory of a lifetime experience ended up with me working from home and $30k worth of paper weights in the front yard and my kids sharing my vehichle (not new and what I have had for years as this was for them, not me). couldn't get anyone from toyota to give a crap about me and was told they provide rides and rentals that I could get my money back in 6-8 weeks. TOYOTA would not even buy their own car back from me for $8k, I had to go to carmax and lose $12k in under 90 days and now I am not able to get the girls anything close to that dollar amount and new junk cars already having issues. What was a sad gift meant to do good ended up being stolen from us by Toyota..... and they STILL have these for sale at over $15k with lies about the fuel mileage and range... SOMETHING needs to be done legally, this is morally wrong

Casey Scheirer (not verified)    June 4, 2022 - 4:36PM

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Stay away from the 2022 Mirai! I purchased a few months ago bc was told I could expect to get over 450 miles on a single fill. Over 70 miles per gallon sounded wonderful! I believed the salesman who claimed to own one too. I was excited to here about how Toyota was continuing to add to fuel station infrastructure and how easy it would be to fuel my car.

All of this was a lie. I fill my tank and Every time I fill it completely, my estimated miles until empty varies between 200-212 miles. My average MPG is 43. I’m stuck filling my car several times a week. To make matters worse, the few stations they have in the Orange County area are usually down!

I took it back to the dealer to trade it in but they would only give me an amount that would leave $20,000 upside down. Yes, almost 20 grand less than I paid for it 3 months ago.

STAY AWAY FROM THE MIRAI!!!!

Joseph Vanderhoff (not verified)    February 20, 2023 - 1:11AM

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I'll be the first in line to start a CLASS ACTION case against Toyota. I have never hated a car as much as I hate the Mirai. ALL LIES. I average 160 miles per tank full. Today I tried four stations before being told where they were pumping. I got there and by the time I got some fuel it was two hours later.

Scott (not verified)    April 26, 2023 - 3:55PM

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Same issue. Sacramento is the WORST place to own one of these. Fuel is always out or station down. In the 6 months we have owned it we have been able to drive it 6 weeks or so. Notify me if there is a class action.

SAME ISSUE. SA… (not verified)    July 11, 2023 - 4:46PM

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Sacramento has a terrible infrastructure for these vehicles. When I purchased the Mirai in 2021 there were 3 stations and 2 proposed to be built in 2022. Also fuel was around $16/kg. Now fuel is $26+/kg and still only 3 stations and there always seems to be a problem with 1-3 of them. Today all 3 are down. The one in West Sacramento is the most steady, however you are required to wait 10 minutes between fills. One day I waited almost 2 hours to fill. I do admit Toyota has been good with reimbursement for rentals and gas though. I average 15k miles per year in driving but only have 11k miles on my Mirai after almost 2 years. Please let me know if there is a class action lawsuit as I know 3 Mirai Owners who would want to get in.

Susan H. (not verified)    November 30, 2023 - 10:27PM

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I owned 2018 Mirai is 100% agree with you...on everything. I reached out to Tustin Toyota and they told me to call Toyota Brand Engagement Center at 800-331-4331 for complaint. This is Toyota headquarters and they record the whole conversation and will report to the authorities. I encourage everyone give them a call, and express our NO FUEL and high price of hydrogen. However, the lady answered my call did say Toyota has no control over the fuel price since it's controlled by the filling station. I did write to CA governor for solution since CA government was supporting and promoting Hydrogen fuel cell car. We should ask Toyota to either 1) issue a new fuel card for additional $15,000 value, or 2) buy back all 10,000+ Mirai on the street and give existed owners a fair trade in value for replacement. We need to act together to let our voice heard.