Toyota has said from the beginning its launch of a new kind of vehicle – the hydrogen fuel cell variety – would be slow and true to its word, it has temporarily brought sales at certain dealers to a grinding halt.
According to Wards Auto, the automaker has told some of its few California dealers offering the Mirai FCV to stop selling it while being a bit circuitous in explaining the semantic distinctions that could call criticism on the new technology.
“It is not a stop-sale, we have just asked [the dealers] not to make deliveries until we have a station open,” said Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America from the sidelines of the 2016 Automotive News World Congress.
That could be interpreted as a working definition of “stop-sale,” but be it as it may, the temporary move followed other snags to the rollout including that the California Energy Commission had said there would be 53 H2 stations by end of 2015 and that has not happened.
As observed also by InsideEVs, only 3-5 public stations were available initially to Toyota as it sought to release the Mirai last year.
The court of public opinion presided over by plug-in advocates judging hydrogen as a flawed strategy for numerous reasons has meanwhile declared FCVs as nearly dead on arrival.