The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell sedan is a vehicle that we’ve discussed quite a lot on EV Obsession and CleanTechnica … mostly owing to its relation to the economic viability of consumer hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles in general.
A new data point on that matter recently popped up — Toyota has apparently slashed the monthly lease price for the Mirai from $499 all the way down to $349, and the down-payment from $3,649 to $2,499.
Toyota exec Bill Fay was quoted by Ward’s Auto on the subject, revealing that the company felt it would be “a little bit helpful to have a more affordable payment” with regard to increasing sales/leases, and thus awareness. And also that “California’s hydrogen infrastructure has been slower to develop than Toyota had hoped.”
As some will recall, Toyota reps had previously claimed that that there would be at least 50 hydrogen fuel cell refueling stations open for use in California by the end of 2016. As it stands, it’s looking more likely for the real number to be around 30.
On a related note, the company seems to have boosted sales somewhat in recent months by offering a new “team member lease program” for the Mirai.
Green Car Reports provides more:
From January through July, the Mirai sold at a rate of about 40 a month, logging a total of 270 sales over seven months.
Then, in August, a whopping 371 were delivered, more than doubling the annual total to 641.
Most of those deliveries were to Toyota employees, according to Jana Hartline, the company’s environmental communications manager.
In response to a reader tip sent to this site, Hartline wrote:
‘We did offer a Mirai team member lease program in August. I can say a good majority of the month’s volume went to that program, which was a way to transition to the new (model year). As with all our vehicles, team members are offered special lease pricing.
‘With 21 retail hydrogen stations open today, the majority located in SoCal where most team members live, and four to five more coming online before year end, it was a good time to offer the Mirai to our California team.’
As a reminder, there are a number of strong incentives currently in place for the Mirai — a “Trailblazer” discount of $7,500; free hydrogen fuel for 3 years (with a cap at $15,000 of fuel); a 3-year period of free maintenance and free rental vehicles (7 days a year); the federal income tax credit for hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles; single-occupancy carpool lane access in California; and a financing rate of 0% for 60 months.
Despite all of his, demand hasn’t been very good.
Image via Kyle Field | CleanTechnica