First things first: when it was new in 2017, this Toyota Mirai saloon cost £66,000, making its current £27,995 price rather tempting. The catch? It’s a fuel cell electric vehicle, meaning that unless you’re near one of the UK’s 15 or so hydrogen pumps, you will suffer from range anxiety and then some.
But times are changing: there’s a fast-growing awareness of hydrogen’s value in the energy mix, while the UK is well placed to produce loads of it very cheaply. ITM, a British company active in the hydrogen sector, plans to open 100 filling stations in the next five years. It will need customers, of course, but on that point, there’s an all-new Mirai coming. Hyundai has also joined the party with its all-new Nexo FCEV. And then there are all the buses and commercial vehicles forecast to be using hydrogen in the coming years.
Both the new Mirai and Nexo are expensive but, as we’ve seen with battery-electric vehicles, if more manufacturers can be persuaded to come on board, prices will fall and a used market will establish itself offering far lower entry points such as the one provided by our Mirai.
This example has a full Toyota service history and has had only one owner. As befitting a car costing just shy of £70,000, it wants for little, with Go Plus sat-nav, heated front and rear seats and electric adjustment for the driver’s chair all fitted. The seats are trimmed in synthetic leather, but at least it means we won’t be telling you to check for cracks in 10 years’ time.
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Oh yes, you might not need to check the leather seats in 10 years time but you will need to take it back to Toyota in 10 years to have all the tanks, the fuel cell and all the hig pressure lines check and replaced accordingly as you need to do with all hydrogen fool cell cars.
Yep. You knoiw hydrogen is well and truly established when there's a used market. It's good to see you admitting that, after many years of pig-ignorant rants, you were wrong. It's okay.
33k depriciation in 4 years says it all hydrogen cars, a sub standard 63k car to boot too. What mug is going to buy it even after the price is lowered to 20k
Well I make it £38k, but even so that represents a residual value of 42%, which is about average for a 3year old luxury car. And who knows, it may have some historic value of being the first commercially available hydrogen car in years to come? I seem to remember the toyota prius being similarly rediculed 20 odd years ago, but that hasn't stopped toyota selling 15 million of them (well hybrids at least).
38K loss, even worse especially and even then they will be lucky to get a offer of 20k for a 4 year old toyota, luxury you are having a laugh. No one would buy a currently commercially available vechicle on the off chance they could sell it to a museum in 20 years time.
Prius example, they were never over 60k and they could be refuelled anywhere, I dont remember them being rediculed everywhere either.