Toyota showcases Mirai hydrogen car at Melbourne's All Energy conference despite tiny Australian sales

You can’t say they not insistent. Toyota has only sold two of its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell cars in Australia over the last two years and just 43 over the last five years, but there it was at the All Energy conference in Melbourne, pride of place at the Toyota stand.

The fact that Toyota was there at all was a surprise. There were hundreds of stands and exhibitors at this year’s All Energy conference in Melbourne – some of them paying more than $1 million to present their wares – but in a sign of the rapid transition in the energy and transport sectors, almost all were new names focused on EVs, EV charging, solar, batteries, and grid management systems.

There were few big legacy corporate names, which makes Toyota’s presence all the more interesting – and they did at least have their own electric offering, the Hilux BEV electric ute – to put on display.

But the presence of the Mirai, including a hydrogen refuelling station – “try refuelling” it suggested” – and even an electrolyser, indicates that Toyota has still not given up on its hydrogen dream. The Mirai has got 650 kms of range, the Toyota staff were telling passers by.

That was signifiant a few years ago when most EVs struggled to get more than 400 km real range. And technology has evolved, battery costs and density has improved dramatically. It would have been interesting to know what the feedback was.

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