Toyota Mirai FCEV arrives in India officially; Camry to get flex-fuel engine soon

Toyota Kirloskar India has introduced the Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle in India. The new car is introduced to be a part of a pilot project with the International Centre for Automotive Technology or ICAT. The Mirai was earlier spotted testing on the Indian roads.

Nitin Gadkari, the union transport minister was present at the event and said that the pilot project focuses on spreading awareness of alternative fuels. The Mirai that has reached India is the latest version of the car that is already available in many international markets.

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While Toyota did not announce the price of the future plans to sell the cars to retail buyers, it will be a part of the pilot project in Delhi.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor said,

We are very excited & grateful that Hon’ble Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has kindly consented to propagate the FCEV Mirai during this pilot study which is taking place at Delhi. We strongly believe that this will provide great encouragement and tremendous boost to all the stakeholders who are beginning to work towards hydrogen-based society in support of our national goals and are confident that India can lead in this direction in future. We applaud the Indian government’s relentless efforts towards promoting carbon neutral and electrified technologies and remain fully committed to supporting the national objectives,

Toyota also has plans to introduce Camry with a flex-fuel engine in the Indian market.

Toyota Mirai to be made in India

The second-generation Mirai will be manufactured at Toyota’s plant in Karnataka. It was introduced globally in December 2020. The Mirai runs on hydrogen. It uses compressed gas to generate electricity and power the car. In a full of hydrogen, the Mirai can go up to 646 km.

The Mirari gets a high-pressure hydrogen fuel tank. The powertrain breaks down the hydrogen into water and oxygen to generate electricity. There is a small battery that stores the power and uses it to power the motor. The size of the battery is 30 times smaller than the conventional electric cars.

The pilot project is to spread awareness about hydrogen and FCEV. While the broader details on the adoption of the technology and pilot project remain unknown, if it becomes a success, we might get to see heavy buses and trucks using hydrogen technology in the future.

The hydrogen refill takes about 3-5 minutes, just like the standard fossil fuel cars. This reduces the downtime of the car and increases the range while bringing down the emissions to zero.

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