Toyota Mirai FCEV starts life as a London POLICE car

The Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle starts life as a Police car with the Metropolitan Police in London, with a fleet of 11 Mirai’s bringing zero emission patrol cars to the capital.

It’s more than two years since the first Toyota Mirai cars in the UK were handed over to their owners, and as intriguing, and promising, as the fuel cell powered Mirai is, you’re never going to see one on every street.

But the Mirai is already proving itself as a proper workhorse in the hands of London Taxi drivers, and now it’s about to get a much bigger profile in London as the Metropolitan Police take delivery of their first Mirais, part of a fleet of 11, which will be used as response cars both in full livery and as covert response vehicles.

Before you start wondering if you’re going to see Mirai’s in full Plod livery stranded without fuel, London now has five hydrogen fuelling stations, with more to come, which, with the Mirai’s 300 mile range, should ensure seamless operation for the zero-emission patrol cars.

Met Commander Neil Jerome said:

We are delighted to have taken delivery of 11 of these cars to support policing in London. They are our first entirely zero emission response vehicles and this is an exciting development for us.

The Met is committed, alongside the Mayor, to making the service as environmentally friendly as possible and a big part of that work is ensuring our fleet is green. Since late 2015 we have been actively looking at ways to hybridise and electrify our fleet as well as exploring other new technologies such as hydrogen.

This is enabling us to make great strides towards our ambition of procuring 550 vehicles as zero or ultra-low emission by 2020.

Now it’s time to play the “Spot the ‘Green’ Plod” if you’re in London.