Got an email from Toyota Santa Monica today, Mirai are going to MSRP for $57500 but you can lease one for $499 for 36/mo.
For the price of the lease I would try it...unfortunately TX (and most of the world for that matter) has no infrastructure to make use of it though.
Not for me as I only buy mainstream cars. However, it is the car of the future. It has advantages of both gas hybrid and EV. The technology in it is out of this world. I wish I can afford it and live in CA.
I'm never going to live in California again (and I am native)...unless the job requires it of course.
And the first 3 years if you buy it. But this is only because California isn't letting the hydrogen stations charge customers directly for fuel.
i disagree, the next pip is in the works. meanwhile the government of japan and u.s. are doing a fine job of lining toyota's pockets.
It's more Calfornia's government than the US. Since the next PPI may actually have substance, Toyota may not feel the need to talk about it.
I can't see the logic of assuming Toyota is putting all their eggs in Fuel Cell basket, just because Mirai is launched before PiP2.
Toyota's actions are what establishes the PiP dying on the vine. Once all the talk is eliminated, what clearly remains is this: 1) Toyota does not sell the PiP except in a minority of states. They obviously do not want to expand the PiP marketplace because they have not expanded the PiP marketplace. 2) The next generation PiP is continuously delayed. Nothing indicates technical hurdles are involved and everything indicates a change in company strategy...to deemphasis Toyota's single PHEV model.
California has finally issued regulations for selling hydrogen. IIRC only 1 of the stations has equipment that will allow them to sell. Hydrogen Fuel Now Available For Sale In California Then again with less than 400 fcv on the road by the end of this year, there is little reason to upgrade equipment in order to sell the stuff. Maybe by the end of next year they will have some stations that actually try to meter and charge, but all the leases will include free fuel, so not much incentive to put a price on it. I don't know weather the state of california or the vehicle manufacturer will pay for the fuel. Toyota's estimate is $10/kg, but that is probably after state subsidies and includes no tax. They definitely switched engineering and marketing resources between prius phv and mirai. That is probably the reason the prius phv next gen is delayed so far, and they are stopping this generations production in june instead of doing and update for 2016 my (now cancelled). Their PACs are pushing FCV hard for ZEV in Japan and the US government and California government. Small forecasts (5700 worldwide 3000 in us, through end of 2017) mean that toyota's top brass have stepped away from thinking this thinking is going to be successful in the near term (next decade). Most of toyota's Eggs are in the hybrid basket, and fcv may be a way for them to try to delay plug-in adoptions, or they may truly believe that fcv are the future. In anycase toyota appears to still be developing the prius phv, and likely can resurrect the tesla relationship to co develop a longer range plug-in. As toyota noted in their fcv pushback, they have a warchest of $60B and can afford to lose money on the fcv development for decades. That means they can also afford to develop plug-ins. That simply is not true, only the federal commercialization credit on the sale of each vehicle has expired. The federal government still provides a great deal of money to open hydrogen stations, as well as R&D money for car fuel cells, hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen distribution. Add in State incentives of $220M for fueling stations, $5000/car and 9 ZEV credits, fcv still have much higher incentives than plug-ins per likely vehicle. If you figure each zev is worth $2000, that is $23,000 + HOV + fueling + R&D in california, similar to the 3M yen ($24,200) + fueling + R&D that the japanese government is giving in some areas.
