Toyota Ditches The Pricey Mirai Limited For 2025, Keeps The XLE Model

Choosing a 2025 Toyota Mirai just got a lot simpler, because the automaker has officially discontinued the top-spec Limited trim. This year, the only Toyota fuel-cell vehicle available will be the Mirai XLE, which starts at $51,795 plus $1,095 destination. Despite going without some of the Limited’s luxury features, the base-trim Mirai is still pretty darn well-equipped, making it an interesting alternative-fuel option for someone who lives within spitting distance of a hydrogen refueling station.

A One-Trim Strategy Going Forward

Toyota will only offer the Mirai in a single trim level for 2025, potentially to reduce production costs on the slow-selling hydrogen fuel-cell car. Despite the loss of the Limited, the XLE still gets a Toyota Multimedia 12.3-inch infotainment system and identically sized digital gauge cluster, dual-zone climate control, and heated front seats. Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 also comes standard on the Mirai, bundling full-speed adaptive cruise control, forward collision prevention with pedestrian detection, lane tracing, and Proactive Driving Assist; when active, the latter uses the car’s radar and proximity sensors to provide braking and steering assistance even when cruise is shut off. Traffic Jam Assist also comes standard, providing hands-free operation in slow freeway slogs.

Unfortunately, the Limited’s ventilated front seats, rear seat sunshades, and eight-way power passenger seat get cut, and we wonder how difficult it would’ve been for Toyota to just bundle everything into the XLE – even for a slight price increase – to justify the flagship trim’s death. That said, the XLE compares nicely to its only competition in the hydrogen fuel cell space, the $60,135 Hyundai Nexo. Both cars are nearly identically equipped, although the Nexo’s crossover form factor makes it more practical than the (somewhat cramped) Mirai sedan. Still, Toyota claims a 402-mile range per tank of H2 for the rear-drive Mirai, while the front-drive Nexo can only muster 380. Given the increasing rarity of hydrogen fuel stations, that extra 22 miles could be the difference between summoning Toyota’s standard 10 years of roadside assistance or making it to your final destination.

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Early Adoption Hasn’t Solved The Mirai’s Woes

Although its pricing and range may seem rather appealing compared to other electric vehicles, the Mirai still has a hard time overcoming the primary obstacle to widespread fuel cell adoption. Since it uses hydrogen fuel to recharge its tiny 1.2-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, it needs to be refueled, like a normal gasoline car. Unfortunately, the only such stations in the US are located exclusively in the state of California, with the vast majority of them clustered around Los Angeles and San Francisco.

That means the Mirai isn’t a great road trip vehicle – despite its impressive range and phenomenally comfortable front seats – yet unlike shorter-legged EVs, it can’t simply be recharged overnight at home or in an hour or so at the grocery store. And unlike gasoline, hydrogen is staggeringly expensive at the moment. Toyota’s solution is to provide $15,000 of free refueling credits to every new owner of a Mirai, which, admittedly, is good for at least 150,000 miles of zero-emissions motoring. Still, it’s hard to make the numbers work unless you happen to live around the corner from a refueling station, which few of us do.

Source: Toyota