In 2014, Toyota’s then-president Akio Toyoda said he had “seen the future” and that the release of the Mirai, the company’s flagship hydrogen vehicle, would mark a “turning point” for the automotive industry.
After selling just 27,500 hydrogen cars over the following decade, the world’s biggest carmaker is no longer so certain. “I can’t say for sure that it’s a bright future for hydrogen,” Hiroki Nakajima, chief technology officer at Toyota, told reporters at the Fuji Speedway racetrack in Japan in November.
But even as most other major carmakers have gone full in on EVs, Toyota believes that ultimately hydrogen will still carve out a significant role in decarbonising transport.