Environment & Energy

Toyota introduced the Mirai in 2014. It pissed off anyone that thought (and had INVESTED IN) carrying around a 3000 pound battery was the future for every single car in the US. Some actually threatened physical harm to anything Toyota, like the stations, which were called "True Zero" and not owned by Toyota. Toyota says they build cars, not hydrogen stations.

When the car was introduced, H2 was somewhere between $10-15 per Kilogram, which was high but not ridiculous and everyone was saying the cost would come down. Today's price: $30.00 + PER KG. - the HIGHEST PRICE IN THE WORLD! I have asked and searched for WHY this is for years and have not found any answers.

Toyota (and Hyundai with the NEXO) forced anyone that wanted to buy a H2 car to prove that they lived near a hydrogen station (in writing). They likely had some agreements that were made at the time that were not honored as the whole thing fell apart, hopefully the lawsuit will force these out into the public.

Then it might have worked but TPTB decided that H2 MUST NOT WORK in the biggest market for cars in the US. It was easy to rig the "Failure". Make the fuel unaffordable, make sure everyone knew of the problems and wait.

Now all the H2 haters can say "We tried H2 in Calif but it didn't work". H2 costs around $5.00 per Kg in China right now which the US cannot allow (a "full tank" on the Mirai would cost around $30.00 which is less than petrol.)

The Hydrogen Basher and former TESLA Investor from CleanTechnica - Michael Barnard- claims to be a part of this suit. If you want to see what he's about this is worth reading (He's an extremely nasty piece of work):

Exposing Anti-Hydrogen Media Bias – Part 1: Michael Barnard’s Background and Journalism Style
https://fuelcellsworks.com/2025/10/27/h2/exposing-anti-hydrogen-media-bias-part-1-michael-barnard-s-background-and-journalism-style

You can still find H2 in Europe for as low as €10 Kg (at least for now) because Europe wants H2 to be available (at least some do) but at $30 Kg H2 doesn't make sense for anything.

You can see these stations here (might have to click "inhalte nachladin" ) https://h2.live/en/ . By the way, when it became clear to Toyota that the US didn't want their H2 car, they packed up their hydrogen division and went to Europe where they can get closer to a fair deal.

You can also see that entirely new stations WOULD NOT have to be built, which is one of the haters main points. You can see the address on the site then go to google earth and choose "Street view" and see the actual stations. Many have been added to existing stations which the haters DID NOT LIKE at all.

map of existing stations in California (there are less stations now than when the Mirai went on sale, they just closed Harris Ranch, the only way to get to the Bay Area from SO. Cal. )
https://h2fcp.org/stationmap

BMW VP explains how it SHOULD have been and how it will likely progress for the future

BMW VP Dr. Juergen Guldner: Hydrogen Stations "Not Rocket Science" - our uptimes & reliability #'s way higher than CA

BMW's H2 car will be introduced around 2028

One last thing: When the Mirai was introduced, very few could have imagined that a 114 kW h2 fuel cell stack would be sold and part of a car, the stack alone was >$100,000+ and simply not usually available. The bashers like to say that "It's been 30+ years with no big improvements" but that is simply wrong. The cost alone has come down an incredible amount. You could buy a used Mirai (if you had a way to fill it) and park it on a street and power a whole neighborhood (20-30 homes) if you wanted. You can also imagine that this is also not wanted by TPTB.

Southern Chinese Megacity Guangzhou Spearheads Use of Hydrogen Vehicles
# of public hydrogen stations in Calif in 2016: around 50
# of public hydrogen stations in China in 2016: 0
# of public hydrogen stations in China in 2026: Over 500