CleverShuttle Toyota Mirai fleet clocks up five million km

The fleet of Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicles used by German ride-pooling service CleverShuttle has now travelled more than five million kilometres without producing any tailpipe emissions.

Bookings are made via an app, customers are picked up at their desired location and driven to their desired destination. By bundling passengers with similar routes, the driver service ensures prices that are up to 40% lower than the usual prices for conventional taxis.

In two and a half years, CleverShuttle has driven six and a half times the distance from Earth to the moon and back with the cars, making it the world’s most well-travelled Toyota Mirai fleet.

Fuel cell electric vehicles such as Toyota Mirai became an important pillar for us thanks to their reliability,” says CleverShuttle cofounder and chief operating officer Jan Hoffman

The cooperation with Toyota started in September 2017 with an initial fleet of 20 Mirai in Hamburg and was expanded up to 45 vehicles at several German locations. Throughout this period, no repairs or parts changes were needed, apart from regular maintenance.

Toyota Motor Europe Berlin director Ferry Franz says the CleverShuttle experience shows that fuel cell vehicles are suitable for everyday use.

He says that no technical defects and the performance of the fuel cell, with mileage up to 180,000 km per vehicle so far, demonstrate the maturity and durability of Toyota’s fuel cell system.

The Toyota Mirai has been available in Europe since 2015 and is available for private and commercial customers to order.

The luxury fuel cell sedan offers its occupants maximum comfort thanks to the four individual seats.

The Mirai only requires hydrogen for propulsion, which is converted into electrical energy in the fuel cell and the 113 kW / 154 hp electric motor drives. It can travel up to 500km on one tankful of hydrogen and refuelling takes just under three minutes.

Toyota says that later in 2020 the second generation Mirai will start production in Japan and will bring even longer range in a beautiful new design