You might have been surprised when Toyota unveiled the second-generation Mirai. Instead of making another Prius-esque hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, Toyota took the bold step of turning the Mirai into a big, handsome, rear-drive sedan. To find out why, we talked to the Mirai's chief engineer, Yoshikazu Tanaka, at the L.A. Auto Show last week.

Speaking through an interpreter, Tanaka explained the main technical reason for going rear-drive—doing so created more room for hydrogen tanks. Tanaka and his engineers realize that hydrogen refueling stations are sparse. Increasing hydrogen capacity increases driving range, which helps negate the problems created by a lack of infrastructure. But it's about more than that, too.

"We needed to extract the full potential of what the vehicle could be, and because you have these infrastructure limitations, we needed to make a car that was super appealing to these customers," Tanaka said. "So just looking good isn't enough. Just because you have extended driving range, that's not enough. The most important thing is it has to drive well, and it has to have good performance."

Tanaka didn't call the new Mirai a sports sedan outright, but he did say that going rear-wheel drive make it a lot nicer to drive than its predecessor. It could be the first hydrogen car you want to take out on a twisty road.

Toyota is looking to increase sales significantly with this new Mirai, and Tanaka believes that greater volume will help with the infrastructure problem. "If you release an appealing car, and the customers say 'Gosh, I want this car,' for sure, the infrastructure will follow and change," he said. "If we don't do that, if we don't increase the number of vehicles, the infrastructure will never get better."

Toyota

Without saying so explicitly, Tanaka and Toyota seem to want the 2021 Mirai to do for hydrogen cars what the Tesla Model S did for electric cars. Make the car appealing for more than just its propulsion method, then customers and infrastructure will follow.

Tanaka ultimately believes EVs and hydrogen fuel-cell cars can coexist, and even compliment one another. He conceded that fuel-cell technology is more expensive than battery technology, but noted that on the flip side, creating a long-range EV is costlier than building a fuel-cell car with similar range. So perhaps there's a world where affordable, short-range EVs proliferate side by side with long-range hydrogen vehicles. Tanaka is also intrigued by the possibility of hydrogen semi trucks, which could store tons of hydrogen for a huge driving range.

But for now, the question is whether or not customers will flock to the new Mirai. We'll find out when it goes on sale next year.

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