TOKYO -- Toyota is preparing to launch the second generation of its Mirai fuel cell car next year, Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada said on Wednesday.
The executive was speaking at an international ministerial meeting on hydrogen energy in Tokyo.
Toyota launched the first iteration of the Mirai sedan in late 2014 as the first mass-market hydrogen fuel cell car.
Toyota is the first automaker to bring FCEVs to Canada, though none has been purchased outside of fleet operators.Ballard Power Systems, a B.C.-based fuel cell company, arranged in July for several of its employees to purchase a fleet of Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric sedans.
Deliveries started almost immediately.
The first fleet of Mirai vehicles hit the road in Quebec earlier this year. Toyota has also been selling the car as a fleet vehicle in Quebec since about January.
Toyota has sold 57 Mirais in Canada through August, according to the Automotive News Data Center in Detroit.
Toyota has been working with hydrogen stakeholders across Canada to help install the necessary fuelling infrastructure, training and service to support the sale of FCEVs.
Toyota expects the price of fuel cell cars to match those of hybrids within 10 years, the automaker's European head of sales and marketing, Matt Harrison, told the Automotive News Europe Congress earlier this year in Gothenburg, Sweden.
"By the third generation we fully expect fuel cell costs to be comparable with hybrids," Harrison said. "We believe fuel cell vehicles have a huge potential," he said.
