Toyota is relying on hydrogen for Europe’s future. It is already facing a class action lawsuit because its car is “almost useless”.

Toyota believes that hydrogen will be an important part of the future of the automobile. The company has been researching its use for some time, and the Toyota Mirai is undoubtedly the most representative fuel cell car with this technology.

Now Toyota is facing a class action lawsuit from owners of the car who claim the company deceived them with false promises about the future of the technology.

Toyota, the Hydrogen Car and Demand

Toyota’s relationship with hydrogen goes back a long way. In the early 2000s, the Japanese were already exploring the use of hydrogen in the automotive market.

Technology promises much of what we strive to achieve: the same amount of time spent filling up as a petrol car, the smoothness and comfort of an electric car and virtually zero emissions. Although no CO2 is emitted through the tailpipe, NOx and fine particulate emissions are produced. Despite this, they provide sufficient benefits for Europe to be open to their use in combustion engines from 2035.

Anticipating the rest of its competitors, Toyota launched the Mirai, its first fuel-cell electric vehicle, in 2014. The technology uses hydrogen in high-pressure tanks to create electricity through electrolysis, which passes it through an electric battery to power the car.

It’s currently the most efficient known use of hydrogen, though the logistics remain so expensive and inefficient that it raises doubts about its viability in small cars. Overall, Toyota is one of the brands doing the most research in this regard, even suggesting that hydrogen can be burned in an internal combustion engine to retain the feel of gasoline but with fewer emissions.

In any case, Toyota has long noted that hydrogen will be a very important element in the future of combustion. The Japanese also say that Europe is an ideal market for their expansion, given the broad emissions ambitions we have set for ourselves in the coming years.

However, even though the Toyota Mirai is sold on our continent, the possibilities for recharging its tanks are still very limited. In countries like Germany and France, which are working on expanding the number of stations, you can still drive around with some peace of mind, but in Spain, refuelling is almost impossible.

And this is exactly what the US company is accused of. Toyota will have to face class action lawsuit filed by a group of Toyota Mirai owners who claim the brand lied to them by telling them it would be as easy to fill up as a petrol car.

In their complaints to the brand, they claim that hydrogen recharging stations are virtually non-existent years after the car went on sale, and that the Toyota Mirai’s real autonomy is significantly lower than expected. “These problems make the car virtually unusable,” they emphasize.

IN Motor Passionwhere they repeat the plaintiffs’ arguments, we can read that they point to numerous inconveniences in filling up, when at the time of purchase the salesmen assured them that it would be as easy as filling up a petrol car.

They note that sometimes they have to travel long distances before they can find a pump, and that in some cases, poor maintenance of these locations prevents the vehicle from being filled or, in the worst case, blocks the vehicle mid-way through the process. In these cases, the gun nozzle freezes and users have to wait 30 minutes for it to warm up enough to be safely removed.

According to them, nothing that was promised to them worked as they expected. They remember that hydrogen price The price of fuel has almost tripled in just two years, from $13 per kg to $36 per kg. That is, the cost of filling tanks has increased from $75.6 to more than $200.

All of this, they claim, is grounds for believing that the company has engaged in misleading advertising, as they now own a car that they describe as “almost unusable” and which they bought because they were sold a car that ran on “affordable” fuel without informing them of the risks involved in the purchase.

Photo | Toyota

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