The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCEV) has been criticized by scientists for not being clean enough to be called a truly zero-emission vehicle.
In an open letter to the organizers of the Games, the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (CSRF) called for the Toyota Mirai to be removed as the official car of the XXXIII Olympiad.
“We are writing to express our concern that Toyota’s promotion of a hydrogen car is scientifically inconsistent with the goal of net zero emissions and will damage the reputation of the 2024 Games,” said the letter, signed by more than 120 scientists and engineers.
“The possibility of a diversion remains and we urge you to require Toyota to replace the Mirai with a battery-powered electric vehicle as the official toy vehicle.
“The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is clear that battery-powered electric vehicles are the most effective way to decarbonise passenger transport.
“The use of hydrogen for road transport is not consistent with global net zero targets and ultimately risks distracting from and delaying the real solutions available to us today.”
As with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (to be held in 2021), Toyota is the official supplier of transport vehicles in Paris, including 1,150 battery electric vehicles (EVs) – likely the bZ4X – as well as 10 hydrogen fuel cell coaches and 500 Mirais.
The latter uses a fuel cell to convert hydrogen gas into electricity, which then charges a small battery pack that powers the electric motor.
Although the Mirai produces no emissions other than water, scientists say it will not meet the Olympics’ carbon neutrality goals because most buyers of the sedan will fuel themselves with hydrogen, which originally comes from fossil fuels such as methane gas.
This is commonly referred to as grey hydrogen, while green hydrogen – the type preferred by the letter’s authors – is produced by electrolysis of water, with electricity coming from renewable energy sources.
Although green hydrogen is significantly cleaner than grey hydrogen, it is not sufficient to become a more environmentally friendly alternative to electric vehicles, according to the scientists behind the letter to the Olympic Games organizers.
“Fuel cell vehicles powered by green hydrogen require three times more renewable electricity than comparable battery-powered electric vehicles,” the letter states.
“As a result, they require three times more infrastructure to generate renewable electricity, such as wind turbines and solar panels, and are at least three times more expensive to operate than BEVs.”
“99 percent of hydrogen today is produced from fossil fuels without carbon capture and storage, and that is why the global hydrogen market currently produces about the same emissions as the global aviation industry.
“Hydrogen cars are not a viable solution to net zero emissions. Due to the high cost and low availability of fuel, hydrogen car sales are declining rapidly worldwide.”
The letter contained a final dig at Toyota before again calling for only electric vehicles to be used at this year’s Olympic Games.
“Finally, we think it is important to note that even Toyota admits that its Mirai model was not a success,” it says.
“Toyota itself has no plans to switch to hydrogen cars. Industry data shows that hydrogen cars will account for about 0.0% of production by the end of this decade – a rounding error.
“We call on the International Olympic Committee to ensure that Toyota converts the Official Olympic Vehicle and the entire Olympic vehicle fleet for the 2024 Games to 100% battery-powered electric vehicles.”
The Mirai recently suffered a setback in the US state of California, one of the world’s leading markets for fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs).
As reported earlier this year, energy giant Shell has closed all hydrogen filling stations in California, leaving fewer than 50 stations for cars in the state.
Toyota dealers in California then offered discounts of up to 60 percent on the purchase price of the Mirai, provided they met certain terms and conditions.
In the US, only 2,968 new FCEVs were sold in 2023, all in California. The Toyota Mirai accounted for 2,737 sales, while the Hyundai Nexo contributed only 241 sales to the total.
More battery-powered electric vehicles are sold in the United States every day; last year, 1.2 million were sold.
Only four Mirais and four Nexos were sold in Australia last year, but none of the vehicles are available to the public. Instead, they are available on lease from manufacturers’ approved organisations.
There are fewer than ten petrol stations nationwide.
Seven hydrogen cars were sold in Australia between January and the end of June 2024. During the same period, a record 50,219 electric vehicles were delivered.
The opposition to the Mirai’s role in the Olympics follows sharp criticism from groups such as Greenpeace and the Climate Council of Toyota’s alleged lobbying against electric vehicles, its wide range of combustion-engined vans and SUVs, and its slow adoption of electric vehicles.
MORE: Everything about the Toyota MiraiMORE: Toyota Mirai price reduced by 60 percent as demand for hydrogen falls