Toyota Mirai FCEV lease deal in Australia

Toyota Mirai fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are going to Australia’s former chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel, energy retailer Red Energy, FCEV bus and truck manufacturer Hyzon, Telstra, Acciona, and Melbourne’s Yarra Council.

The hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai is being offered in limited numbers on a three-year lease arrangement to forward thinking businesses and organisations to experience the zero-emission sedan in real-world, daily driving conditions.

As part of the lease agreement, refuelling for Victorian-based clients is included at the Toyota Hydrogen Centre in Altona, where hydrogen is produced and stored on site using a 200kW electrolyser that draws power from a combination of an 87kW solar array, 100kW battery storage and mains grid depending on availability.

Australian Government special adviser on low emissions technology, Dr Finkel says he has always been an early adopter of new technology and is keen to advocate for hydrogen as part of a sustainable transport future.

“Hydrogen will be a big part of our future,” he explains. “Most of the replacement of oil, coal and gas will be electricity delivered as electrons, but about 15% of the end-user requirements will be delivered as hydrogen.”

Finkel says big trucks are the most obvious opportunity.

“It’s a bit like diesel and petrol – you associate diesel with big trucks, buses, trains, and ships, and petrol with small urban delivery trucks and cars. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and FCEVs tend to split that way, but there is overlap. Where hydrogen will really excel for cars is for people who don’t have off-street parking.”

The Mirai can fill up with hydrogen in about five minutes.

“So for those people who live in older houses in inner city Melbourne or Sydney, or live in apartments that don’t have provision for car parking, then a hydrogen car is wonderful,” Finkel says.

For Iain Graham, chief executive of Red Energy, a retail arm of Snowy Hydro, leasing a Mirai was a natural extension of the company’s core business of selling renewable energy.

“It was important for us to understand what is the future,” he says.

“We’ve always looked to how we are going to be competitive and what’s on the horizon.

“When electric vehicles came along, we were one of the first to get one which has been a tremendous education for us and a wonderful tool to talk about renewable energy and how practical it is.”

Graham says hydrogen is probably a distance away before it’s commercially practical “but we wanted to be at the very front in our understanding”.

Hyzon Motors Australia special projects head Simon Coburn says leasing a Toyota Mirai will help the company raise awareness of the growing FCEV industry and its potential for reducing transport emissions.

The company was established in Melbourne in May 2020 to supply the Australian and New Zealand market with heavy duty FCCEV trucks and buses.