California Air Resources Board

Toyota

I am a previous Toyota Mirai owner. When I got my car in 2016, the salesman at Toyota Santa Monica bragged at how easy it would be for me to fuel my vehicle. He took me to the pump near the dealership, showed me how it worked and sent me on my way in my brand new car. Fast forward a few months and this dream vehicle of the future was a complete nightmare. There were only a few pumps in the Los Angeles area (with promises that more were being built). There pumps were often broken or empty of hydrogen. Toyota had a caveat in the leasing program of the car that if you could not fuel they would tow you to the nearest dealership and give you a regular rental car until it could be sorted out. There was a website that showed the status of the pumps but it was unreliable. Often I would set out to get fuel only to find the pump down or empty regardless of the status it showed online. The TrueZero technicians who serviced the pumps laughed and asked why I got such an unreliable car. I started to know them on a first name basis and even had their cell phone numbers to call them directly for service.

We were supposed to be visionaries, building a better future with alternative fuel. Instead I was often stranded and unable to drive my car. As a single female in Southern California it was a terrifying and sometimes dangerous situation. I got stranded once in San Diego and that was the final straw for me. I ended up getting out of my lease early and took a financial hit as the value of the car was less than what I owed. My story is not uncommon.

It is now almost ten years later. Toyota is still selling the Mirai in California and despite promises, there are now FEWER hydrogen stations than there were in 2016. Yet there are MORE drivers in these vehicles, despite lack of infrastructure. Selling these cars to the general public without proper disclosure, not warning unsuspecting customers about the truth of the situation… you would think the state or federal government would step in and stop the cars from being sold until it can be remedied. But no- Toyota (and Hyundai) continue to sell these hydrogen “vehicles of the future” to unknowing Americans. When they try to get out of the cars because they’ve been stranded one too many times, they find the value of the car has dropped so much there is no way to get out of it without paying MORE money. If they stop paying, the car gets repossess and their accounts get sent to collections and their credit destroyed.

So if you ask me to support hydrogen as a fuel for the future, I say, first find out who took all the millions of dollars that was given to build that infrastructure that doesn’t exist. Someone has it, but it was not used to build more stations. Then I say stop selling the cars to gullible consumers until the correct infrastructure is in place. And hold the manufacturers AND dealerships accountable.

There is an attorney working with people to try to get Toyota to reimburse them and get them out of these cars. It would behoove you to listen to the stories he has compiled and find out the real truth from the general public before you push any more hydrogen on us.

Or go into a Toyota dealership undercover and see how they pitch it to you. You will be shocked and horrified at how easily they lie and hurt honest consumers who think they are getting into a good deal for a reliable car.