Toyota launches the Mirai, a hydrogen car you can buy — sort of

There are futuristic-looking cars, then there are cars that are actually futuristic. The 2016 Toyota Mirai is definitely one of the latter, soon to take its place in history as the first car to bring hydrogen fuel-cell technology to the masses — something you can buy, keep and pass on to your kids when you get old, who by then, will laugh at the idea that at one point, someone thought it was futuristic.

But for now, the Mirai is the future — literally: the name means “future” in Japanese — and Toyota hopes that it will follow in the treads of the successful Prius (whose name means “predecessor” in Latin, incidentally). And this so-called future will become the present starting in the third quarter of 2015.

Like the Prius, the Mirai is not an overtly beautiful creature (yes, that’s some understatement) but it was styled quite deliberately to break the mold.

“It’s no secret that when we launched Prius, we decided that making it look different than any other car on the road was a risk worth taking,” said Satoshi Ogiso, Managing Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation. “Prius styling was distinctive then and still is today. We think Mirai will be as well. If the name of your car means ‘the future,’ it had better look futuristic.” 

Still, the Mirai has a face only an aerodynamicist could love. A clone of the FCV Concept that Toyota trotted around to auto shows in 2013, the Mirai is roughly the same size as the Camry Hybrid, with 2.5 inches more height and an aerodynamic underbody that’s an inch closer to the ground. Like the FCV Concept, the Mirai has gaping triangular outboard air intakes, vertical turn signals, “floating” hood and roof panels and four menacing-looking LED headlamps on each side.

For the record, Ogiso has an explanation for the styling: "The sides of the car are meant to convey the transformation of air into water, with flowing door profiles. The rear uses a catamaran shape representing water flowing under and through the body.” Oxygen in, water out: not unlike how fuel cells work. And apparently the Mirai needs a lot of oxygen.

All Mirais are monospec and include Toyota’s latest and greatest EnTune system, navigation, and a hydrogen station locator app. Packaging for the various fuel cell and hydrogen storage components limit the size of the trunk, and the need to keep gross vehicle weight down dictated a fixed center armrest between the two rear seats, limiting total passenger count to four.