Car owners form a group to sue government officials, and Toyota's hydrogen-powered vehicles are in big trouble.

Toyota's hydrogen-powered vehicles have failed.

Recently in California, USA, many people gathered to organize a demonstration. The protesters' signs read slogans such as "Mirai is a lie", "Toyota is terribly wrong", and "Mirai leaves me dry".

These people have one thing in common: they have all purchased or leased a Toyota hydrogen-powered vehicle, the Mirai.

The anger of these Mirai owners cannot be resolved by just a demonstration. According to overseas media Teslarati, in California, hundreds of owners have collectively sued Toyota, accusing Toyota and its partners of misleading them regarding the feasibility of the hydrogen fuel supply network.

When Toyota's hydrogen-powered vehicles were first launched in California, Toyota promised that the Mirai could refuel with hydrogen seamlessly, claiming that the convenience of refueling with hydrogen was comparable to that of refueling a gasoline vehicle, and the energy replenishment could be completed in just a few minutes, with only water vapor as the emission.

This drove environmentalists crazy, and the Mirai became a strong alternative to electric vehicles at that time. Toyota even bet heavily that hydrogen energy was the future development direction of the automotive industry.

However, contrary to expectations, as these owners used their cars for a longer time, the collapse of the hydrogen fuel supply infrastructure and the soaring price of hydrogen fuel have made the bright future described by Toyota more and more different from reality.

Some owners can no longer use their Mirai normally but still have to pay off their car loans. It's really tragic.

The owners finally couldn't bear it anymore and sued Toyota.

01 From "Unable to Refuel" to "Unable to Afford Refueling"

From the statement of Sam D'Anna, one of the many plaintiffs in this class - action lawsuit, we can roughly figure out the reasons why these owners sued Toyota.

Sam bought a Toyota hydrogen - powered Mirai back in July 2022, which was worth $75,000 (about 538,000 RMB at that time). But as time passed, not long ago, Toyota's dealer suddenly told him that the nearest hydrogen refueling station in Citrus Heights had stopped operating.

Now, the nearest hydrogen refueling station to his home is in West Sacramento, 25 miles away. Although 25 miles is not a long distance, since his Mirai has been in a state where it can't be fully refueled with hydrogen for a long time, the remaining range shown on his car is only 22 miles.

Obviously, it's not realistic to drive the car there for refueling. Due to the particularity of hydrogen energy, it can neither be transported portably like traditional fuel nor can it be re - energized anywhere like an electric vehicle.

As a result, Sam D'Anna's Mirai has been forced to sit idle. It has been sitting in his father's house for several months.

The most crucial thing is that in addition to paying a $1,200 monthly loan for his currently used vehicle, a Ford F150 hybrid, he also has to pay a $1,100 monthly car loan for this non - usable Mirai.

"I've signed the contract, and it's really bad," Sam said. He accused Toyota of fraud, negligence, and violation of consumer protection laws.

Another owner, Ricky Yap from West Sacramento, also sued Toyota because of the closure of hydrogen refueling stations.

He bought a second - hand Toyota Mirai for $16,000, along with a prepaid fuel card of the same value. He said that the initial refueling experience was "a bit cumbersome and confusing but still bearable", but as more and more hydrogen refueling stations closed, things got worse.

On February 8, 2024, Shell announced the permanent closure of all 7 light - vehicle hydrogen refueling stations in California. Although the number is not large, these 7 stations account for 12% of the hydrogen refueling stations in California. Overnight, many owners were in the embarrassing situation of having no hydrogen to refuel.

As a result, the only remaining hydrogen refueling station in West Sacramento had a long queue. Due to the large number of people refueling, it took up to four hours just to replenish energy.

Finally, Yap chose to completely abandon the car, stopped buying insurance for it, and registered it as a non - operating vehicle. In his words, "I rarely use it because I don't like stress and don't want to buy insurance for a car I can't use every day."

The reason for the lawsuit is that Toyota and its partners misled consumers about the feasibility of the hydrogen energy ecosystem. He said that the original owners were all attracted by the environmentally friendly future depicted by Toyota, but the development of things has seriously deviated from the expected situation.

Moreover, due to the collapse of the hydrogen fuel supply infrastructure, the prices of second - hand Mirais have also dropped significantly. Parita Shah, one of the plaintiffs from West Sacramento, said that a Mirai that was worth $36,000 at that time is now only offered a recycling price of $2,000 by Toyota dealers, and she bought this car just a few months after the nearby charging station closed.

02 The Hydrogen Energy Era Hasn't Arrived Yet

In fact, this is not the first time that owners have launched a class - action lawsuit against Toyota. As early as 11 months ago, many owners sued Toyota.

Many Mirai users found that it was very difficult to find a hydrogen refueling station in the United States after purchasing their cars. They usually had to drive for a long time and often faced problems such as malfunctioning refueling equipment or issues with their fuel cards for payment, resulting in the cars being almost unusable for daily driving.

Taking California as an example, as the largest market for the Toyota Mirai, nearly 18,000 hydrogen - powered vehicles have been sold in California since 2012, most of which are Mirais. This has also made California one of the most concentrated regions for hydrogen - powered vehicles in the world.

Currently, after Shell announced the permanent closure of 7 hydrogen refueling stations in California, there are less than 50 hydrogen refueling stations in the state. If this is the situation in California, one can only imagine the situation in other places.

Even if an available hydrogen refueling station is found, the refueling experience is far from satisfactory. Some owners said that if the Mirai is not refueled with hydrogen for a long time, the pump nozzle for refueling will freeze. At this time, the vehicle must be pre - heated for a long time to heat the pump nozzle to a temperature suitable for refueling.

This easily extends the originally five - minute energy replenishment time to 30 minutes or more. However, for current electric vehicles, 30 minutes is enough to charge the battery from 30% to 80%.

Moreover, some hydrogen refueling stations also limit the single - time distribution of hydrogen fuel. In simple terms, even if you finally find a hydrogen refueling station, you may not be able to fill up your fuel tank.

To make matters worse, in the past few years, the price of hydrogen fuel has risen from $13 per kilogram (about 94 RMB) in 2022 to $36 per kilogram (about 262 RMB) in 2024, a 200% increase.

Based on the Mirai's 5.65 - kilogram fuel tank, the cost of filling the tank from empty has reached $203 (about 1456 RMB).

To promote the sales of the Mirai, Toyota once gave each owner a fuel card worth $15,000 (about 110,000 RMB), claiming that it could be used for "at least five years". However, with the soaring price of hydrogen, Toyota's initial promise has become a bubble.

It's not hard to see that difficulty in refueling, low efficiency, and high hydrogen prices are the common complaints of the owners, which are far from the vision depicted by Toyota.

Jason Ingber, the main lawyer in these two lawsuits, believes that Toyota has distorted the supply of hydrogen from the beginning, describing it as always available and as simple as refueling a gasoline vehicle. "It doesn't make sense that Toyota is still selling this car. Drivers have no fuel to use, and it's not as good as advertised," he said.

Even California Senator Josh Newman once euphemistically said that the user experience of owning a hydrogen - powered vehicle is not very good. He believes that the situation of hydrogen refueling in California is extremely bad.

In the past, it has to be admitted that due to its extremely high energy density, the same energy - replenishment efficiency as gasoline vehicles, and only water as the emission, hydrogen energy once made hydrogen - powered vehicles regarded as the most ideal solution for new - energy vehicles.

However, hydrogen energy is also a typical 'idealism'. There are difficulties everywhere in actual transportation, storage, preparation, and cost.

Due to the relatively high technical and usage thresholds, compared with Toyota's persistence in promoting hydrogen energy, manufacturers such as Hyundai and Honda have changed their attitudes towards hydrogen - powered passenger vehicles from following suit to waiting and seeing.

At the end of 2024, Hyundai originally planned to launch the new - generation hydrogen - fuel vehicle Nexo, but the project was postponed, and there were even rumors of "indefinite suspension".

The "retreat" of other manufacturers represents the limitations of this market to a certain extent. In the next 10 years or even a longer time, hydrogen - powered vehicles can only replace some special application scenarios of gasoline vehicles. For example, in the long - distance and heavy - load field, hydrogen energy is irreplaceable.

In terms of feasibility, the infrastructure cost of battery - swapping is much lower than that of hydrogen energy stations. It can only be said that it is far from the era of hydrogen - powered passenger vehicles.

This article is from the WeChat official account "SuperEV - Lab" (ID: SuperEV - Lab), written by Wang Lei and published by 36Kr with authorization.