Toyota Mirai Review: Living With a Hydrogen Car in NZ

The Toyota Mirai is one of the most interesting cars you can technically buy in New Zealand and one of the least practical to actually run. We've had a Mirai through the workshop for diagnostic work and spent time behind the wheel, and the honest verdict is that it's a genuinely impressive piece of engineering wrapped around an infrastructure problem NZ hasn't solved yet.

What it's like to drive

Forget the hydrogen novelty for a moment — as a car, the Mirai drives like a smooth, quiet, torquey electric vehicle, because that's essentially what it is. A hydrogen fuel cell stack generates electricity on board, which powers an electric motor exactly like a battery EV would. There's no engine noise, no gear changes, just quiet, linear acceleration. The current generation Mirai (second generation, rear-wheel drive) is noticeably more refined and better resolved dynamically than the slightly awkward first-generation car.

Claimed range sits around 650 km on a full tank of hydrogen, which on paper beats most battery EVs sold in NZ. Refuelling, when you can access it, takes about five minutes — again, much closer to a petrol car than to overnight home charging.

The problem: there's almost nowhere to fill up

This is where the Mirai's NZ story gets difficult. Public retail hydrogen refuelling for light passenger vehicles doesn't really exist in New Zealand as of 2026. The hydrogen infrastructure that has been built here has been aimed squarely at heavy trucks and buses, developed by companies working on freight decarbonisation, not at servicing a handful of privately owned passenger cars. The small number of Mirais in the country are almost all held by corporates, government fleets, or dealers running demonstration and trial programmes, with refuelling access arranged privately rather than at a public bowser.

Practically speaking, this means a Mirai is not currently a car an ordinary NZ household could run day to day the way you would a petrol car or a battery EV you charge at home. It's a fleet and trial vehicle here, not a retail proposition.

Running costs, if you can get fuel

Where hydrogen is available internationally, it tends to be expensive per kilometre compared to both petrol and battery EV charging, because producing, compressing, and transporting hydrogen loses a large amount of energy at every step. Without an established NZ retail price, exact per-kilometre costs are hard to state with confidence, but based on international pricing patterns, running a Mirai on hydrogen would likely cost noticeably more per 100 km than charging a comparable battery EV at home, and probably more than filling a modern petrol hybrid too.

Servicing and parts in NZ

Very few workshops in the country have fuel cell stack diagnostic equipment or trained technicians. Toyota NZ dealers handling Mirai fleet vehicles are really the only realistic service option at present. If you're not near one of the main centres, ongoing servicing would be a genuine logistical challenge.

Should you buy one?

If you can somehow secure reliable, ongoing hydrogen access — for instance through an employer or organisation involved in one of the trial programmes — the Mirai itself is a genuinely pleasant, well-built car to drive and live with day to day. But for an ordinary buyer without that access, it's currently not a workable daily car in New Zealand, however appealing the technology is. We'd treat it as a fascinating glimpse at where zero-emission motoring might go, rather than a practical purchase today. Anyone seriously considering one should have a confirmed, specific refuelling arrangement lined up before signing anything — don't assume you'll figure it out afterwards.