NZ’s first hydrogen rental cars arrive, at $79 a day

New Zealand’s first rental hydrogen cars have gone to work in Palmerston North, where three Toyota Mirai fuel cell sedans joined Ezi Car Rental’s airport fleet on Monday at an introductory rate of $79 a day.

The Mirai is the first hydrogen vehicle offered through a New Zealand rental fleet, available to eligible corporate customers through the Ezi Business portal for hires of up to two days. Each car is supplied fuelled for around 250km of driving, and unlike every other rental on the yard, there is no requirement to top up before returning it: Ezi handles refuelling at the Hiringa hydrogen station beside the airport.

The $79 launch rate, for bookings made by 30 September, includes insurance with zero excess and the location fee, which makes it comfortably the cheapest way to spend a day or two with hydrogen power in this country. Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith took the keys as the first customer.

“Most of our customers have never seen a hydrogen vehicle, let alone driven one. That’s exactly why we wanted to be part of this,” says Ezi Car Rental chief executive Anthony Kearns. “Once people try it, it will change how they think about travel.”

Ezi, part of the Toyota family since 2023, runs 24 locations including 18 airport sites, but Palmerston North is the only one outside Auckland with hydrogen refuelling on its doorstep, courtesy of Hiringa’s growing refuelling network. Toyota says Hamilton and Tauranga are possible future rental locations as that network expands, though nothing is confirmed.

There is hometown logic at work as well. Palmerston North has been Toyota New Zealand’s headquarters for decades, so the company’s most futuristic car is now available to rent a few minutes from its head office on Roberts Line.

Toyota New Zealand chief executive Tatsuya Ishikawa frames the fleet as an experience play. “The best way to understand new vehicle technologies is to experience them first-hand,” he says. “The Mirai is a premium car, it drives beautifully, and making it available in the Manawatū is about putting that experience within reach of more New Zealanders.”

The second-generation Mirai has been in New Zealand since 2022, but only through a selected business scheme in Auckland; most of the roughly 17 cars Toyota NZ has in the country have never been available to the public in any form. The Manawatū fleet is expected to grow over time.

The practical details are refreshingly ordinary. A standard licence is all that is required, refuelling takes three to five minutes (not that renters will do it themselves), the car carries a five-star ANCAP rating, and the driving experience is essentially that of an EV, with what Toyota describes as Lexus DNA in the ride and finish. Bookings return to Palmerston North Airport only.

For the hydrogen-curious, it amounts to the lowest-commitment test of fuel cell motoring New Zealand has offered: no six-figure purchase, no Auckland business membership, just a rental desk at a regional airport and $79.