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That's because Toyota really does not want an electric vehicle. It wants the Mirai to take off, so that it can have dedicated customers for the fuel.

https://ssl.toyota.com/mirai/fcv.html

Just a more expensive version of a Razor and Blades scenario.

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Toyota will do what the market demands. It's hard to recall, but before the Cult of Musk lit up American patriotism for homegrown all-electric cars, Americans mocked electric cars mercilessly. Meanwhile, Japan perfected kei format ICE cars, but American protectionism and poor infrastructure and cultural bias toward huge, heavy cars made those a non-starter in the US market. (My kei car gets 80mpg and cost $13K brand new.) And let's not forget the all-powerful oil lobby, which has the US congress by the nuts.

So, can you blame Toyota for putting its chips on HFC--something that still has plenty of non-consumer applications and has otherwise positive implications for a nation without access to native oil reserves?

It's folly to think that Toyota can't compete now that the consumer winds have shifted to all-electric. Even today, Nissan has a tremendous charging network across Japan.

Hell, my Suzuki kei car is nicer, more convenient, and cheaper to buy and operate than a Model 3.

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