Toyota Mirai drivers file class-action lawsuit against the automaker

Owners and lessees of the hydrogen car haven’t all been satisfied with their experience A number of people who own and lease the Toyota Mirai hydrogen car have filed a class action lawsuit against the automaker as a result of their dissatisfaction with their experience with the vehicle. The lawsuit alleges that the automaker misled customers According to the lawsuit, the automaker misled Toyota Mirai customers when it came to the reality of owning the hydrogen powered vehicle. The complaint states that the Japanese company and its sales teams led potential customers of the fuel cell cars to…

Owners and lessees of the hydrogen car haven’t all been satisfied with their experience

A number of people who own and lease the Toyota Mirai hydrogen car have filed a class action lawsuit against the automaker as a result of their dissatisfaction with their experience with the vehicle.

The lawsuit alleges that the automaker misled customers

According to the lawsuit, the automaker misled Toyota Mirai customers when it came to the reality of owning the hydrogen powered vehicle. The complaint states that the Japanese company and its sales teams led potential customers of the fuel cell cars to believe that “hydrogen refueling is available, seamless, and comparable to refueling with gasoline.” That said, the complaint also states that this was not at all the experience of those customer. The complaint pointed to hydrogen fuel shortages and that H2 was increasingly difficult to obtain.

Hydrogen fuel availability issues made Toyota Mirai ownership “unsafe”

In the filing, the plaintiffs said that the struggles with hydrogen availability to fuel the cars, it can make using the vehicles “unsafe, unreliable and inoperable.” They stated that they could find themselves on longer drives simply to try to locate a refueling station. Furthermore, just because a station was found, it didn’t mean that they would have access to any fuel. Several issues were identified as standing in the way of the hydrogen car owners’ ability to refuel, including stations that were regularly closed, incompatible fuel cards, broken equipment, and others that could lead owner to run out of H2 and need to use alternative transportation while their own vehicles were towed.

Rising cost of hydrogen fuel

Aside from struggles to obtain the hydrogen, the cost of the fuel has also seen a rapid rise.  Though the Toyota Mirai is sold with a $15,000 fuel card as an incentive to vehicle ownership, the lawsuit claims that the amount will no longer last three years as was advertised by the automaker. The plaintiffs also pointed out that the range they are experiencing doesn’t match the estimates shared with them by the automaker before they brought the vehicles home. Each of these issues have been cutting into the resale values of the hydrogen car, which falls to only 19.4 percent of its value after five years of use.