Toyota Mirai Hydrogen FCV selling like hot cakes

The Toyota Mirai – Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell car – went on sale in Japan a month ago and has already sold 1500 units, almost four times the target for 2015.

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The Toyota Mira FCV officially went on sale in the middle of December in Japan (when we got more details on the Mirai) with a target to sell 400 in 2015. But it looks like Toyota has completely mis-judged demand for the Mirai as it’s sold 1500 in less than a month.

Toyota say that around 60 per cent of the sales so far have been to government offices and corporate fleets, but that still leaves 40 per cent (some 600 cars) ordered by private buyers in Japan, itself 50 per cent more than the target sales for the whole of 2015 across all buying sectors.

Unsurprisingly, Toyota as said that the unexpected demand for the Mirai means delivery times are not going to be exactly swift, and there’s some doubt if the supply chain can produce components quickly enough to do anything about the waiting list. But it’s a good problem for Toyota to have.

Does this mean the car buying public around the world will be queueing up to get in to a Mirai? Perhaps not, but it’s an impressive start for the world’s first production hydrogen fuel cell saloon, and the clear demand should give renewed confidence to businesses to invest in a hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

Which will itself drive demand for FCVs.