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Select LA/SF Dealers: 2021 Toyota Mirai Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car + $15k Fuel Card Expired

$23,100
$52,408.00
after Tax Credits & Incentives (Select Locations)
+296 Deal Score
457,791 Views
Select Eligible Toyota Dealers [Dealer Locator] located in Los Angeles / San Francisco, California are offering to Qualifying Customers: 2021 Toyota Mirai Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car + $15,000 in Complimentary Fuel for 2yrs with 0% APR for 72-Months for as low as $23,108 after Incentives and Tax Credits. Pricing and availability may vary depending on your location, consult your local eligible dealership for more information.
  • Note: Offer is valid at select participating Los Angeles / San Francisco, California locations only. Refer to the forum thread for additional deal details and discussion.
Thank to community member ExtremeOak for and reddit user XIIXOO for finding this deal.

Deal Details:
  1. Visit your local eligible Toyota Norcal Dealer [Dealer Locator]
  2. Shop for a eligible 2021 Toyota Mirai model that qualifies for the TFS Cash offer and Fuel Card offer mentioned on the page here
    • Note: Qualified buyers can finance a new 2021 Mirai at 0% APR for 72 Months.
  3. Apply for and purchase a qualifying model with prices starting from ~$50,408 (may vary by location)
  4. Toyota Cash Discount will deduct $20,000 from your total
  5. You will receive a $4,500 CA Tax Credit (more info)
  6. You will receive a $8,000 Federal Tax Credit (more info)
  7. You will also receive a Complimentary Fuel Card valid for up to 2 years or $15,000 of fuel (more info)
  8. Your total after incentives and tax credits will be as low as $23,108 and will vary depending on your location and model selection.
Additional Details:
Good Deal?

Original Post

Written by
Edited March 20, 2021 at 12:06 AM by
Let me start by saying Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles are not for everybody. Being that H2 fueling stations are limited, it's really only feasible in the LA / SF area.

YMMV but see below for the breakdown and explanation transcribed from u/acetech09 on Reddit


I bought one of those dirt cheap Toyota Mirais - still waiting for the catch

I have a 70 mile round-trip commute, and have been casually e-shopping for an electric or hybrid commuter car. But I never found something that that was a) well-priced, b) a worthwhile quality-of-life improvement over my current daily, and 3) charging an EV where I live is possible, but annoying.

My current daily is a 2020 MB Metris cargo van. And while I love it as a hobby equipment hauler, it's just an okay daily. Somewhat noisy, and base model so zero creature comforts to speak of.

Enter this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/com...after_tax/
I was intrigued enough to start doing the math and looked into the usability.
8 hours later, I had bought one.
Here's my review of the out-the-door numbers, and a lightweight review of the car from a performance-loving car nerd.
The math with real numbers from my sales agreement:
(edited, changed pricing from monthly to absolute to make it clearer)$50,408.00 (Sale price, $2k under sticker)
+ $5,200 (CA sales tax and registration)
- $20,000 (Cash discount from Toyota corporate)
= $35,608.00 (This is what I financed at 0% APR, 72 months, no fees at all)
- $4,500 (CA tax credit)
- $8,000 (Federal tax credit)
= $23,108.00 Effective post-tax vehicle price
The vehicle price comes out to $23,108. BUT, this goes further because of the complimentary $15,000 fuel card, which is good for about 50,000 miles or 6 years.
So, with that card, it makes sense to compare with other cars by including 50,000 miles of fuel.

Mirai: $23,108 base, free fuel 30mpg gas car: $23,108 base
- $7,500 fuel
= $15,608 out-the-door equivalent 3.4 mi/kwh elec: $23,108 base
- $4,000 fuel
= $19,000 out-the-door equivalent

If you compare it with $15-19k gas/EV equivalent, those vehicles are probably going to be used, with limited warranty remaining. So, there is additional unrealized operating savings with the Mirai as well.

Insurance and registration are about $100/mo for me. This is decently lower than other $50k luxury brands (per my policy at least), but I'm not including it since it's different for everyone.

After the fuel card runs out, the Mirai starts to get more expensive again due to the higher cost of H2 fuel over gas. However, I doubt I'm going to keep the car once the fuel card runs out. And, nobody knows what the depreciation will be like, so I'm keeping it out of this calculation.

That's $15k-$19k, acetech09. Not a 'free car' like some people were saying.

Yes, true. But here's the punchline. This car is really freaking nice.

It's not 'dirt-cheap' compared to a used commute econobox, but it's radically cheaper than any other Lexus-like, freeway-autonomous, tech-laden, fully featured and warrantied mid-size sedan.

For the price of this [craigslist.org], you get this [imgur.com].

Sure, it's cheap, but, how is it?
You might be a skeptic like me and think it's a $25k corolla with a $25k water-maker under the hood. But it's not. This is a proper, no-compromise luxury sedan. It almost directly compares with a top-spec, $40-45k Avalon, at least. Reportedly, this car was originally designed to be a Lexus, but brand politics happened.
  • Spacious, comfy, solid, quiet, cruises like a heavy full-size.
  • Radar cruise control, lane following, full autonomy/driver assist package with granular settings. Power everything. Sound isn't audiophile-tier but is about as good as a production car gets.
  • Bird's eye view/360 degree cameras, pretty excellent for checking your parking since the visibility is as poor as every other modern car.
  • Not exciting to drive, but it's still extremely confident and flat in corners. The 0-60 is 'slow', but it's totally sufficient, and the electric instant-torque makes it capable of cutting through whatever commute conditions you need it to even with lower HP numbers.
  • Huge dash screen with android auto/carplay.
  • A really handy wireless phone charging pad in the center console.
  • The digital instrument cluster display was easy enough to configure and interpret - i'm a big analog dial guy but this one took almost no time to get used to, and feels totally normal now.
  • It has a 'pee' button. Seriously. The car auto-dumps the water exhaust when driving, and during shutdown as well - which could dump a lot of water on your garage floor. So you can manually push a button and have the car pee in your driveway before you pull it into your garage.
Any negatives?
Not really. It's not a drivers car of course, but it's a solid premium Toyota and delivers exactly what you expect and want. Really, just minor nitpicks:
  • Wireless android auto would be nice, to synergize with the wireless charge pad.
  • There isn't multi-user seat memory. That's, bafflingly, part of the +$15k premium trim which is otherwise not really worth it.
  • No spare tire, just fix-a-flat and a compressor. Not a huge issue if you're commuting this in the urban areas it's mostly limited to.
  • No volume knob on the infotainment, you have to button spam.
The elephant in the room, Hydrogen stations:

Of course, the 'catch' is that you can only drive this car in the bay area and parts of LA. However, there are a lot of people in both those areas who only use their car for commutes and local city-errands. Within these markets, it's still pretty insane that you can get them that cheap - it's not like I'm the only guy who wants one.

Toyota does also give 21 complimentary gas-car rental days to the purchaser, like electric car sellers do, so people can take road trips if needed. 21 days isn't a *lot* but it's decent value.

At the pumps, it's almost exactly like filling up a normal gas car, sometimes there's a 1-2 car wait but they fill fast and it's not a big deal.

Conclusion:
I check all the boxes: lives and commutes near hydrogen stations, can take advantage of the tax credits, and has another vehicle for trips outside the hydrogen network.

Only time will tell if this thing gives me a bunch of mechanical problems, or hydrogen balloons in price, or some other unknown. But for now, I think it'll work out great.

Is hydrogen the future? Probably not. The only clear benefit of fuel cell vehicles over battery electrics is refuel time, at significant complexity and material costs. But I'm sure hydrogen stations will be around as long as this vehicle lasts. But if I ever replace it, it'll probably be electric.

Station map for your area (California only):
https://cafcp.org/stationmap

For Carpool Sticker information:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/car...arpool.htm

California Clean Vehicle Rebate $4500 for Mirai
https://cleanvehiclerebate.org/en...e-vehicles
Note: Income cap does not apply for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles! Source [cleanvehiclerebate.org]

Federal Tax credit $8,000 info
https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/350
Note: this is a tax credit, applied when filling out tax return for 2021)

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/com...ta_mirais/
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Deal
Score
+296
457,791 Views
$23,100
$52,408.00

Community Wiki

Last Edited by jnads March 24, 2021 at 02:42 PM

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Featured Comments

I went to Hamer Toyota and they had balls to mark those up 3k plus 1k gps add-on. Came to $56.5k with no negotiation because stimulus money is here and dealers wants it all. Sad state
Hydrogen Fuel cell is exempt from CA rebate income limits.

"The income cap applies for all eligible vehicle types except fuel-cell electric vehicles."

Source: cleanvehiclerebate.org/eng/requirements/1470
Slow car, 0-60 is 9.3 sec

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Joined Oct 2011
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> bubble2 9,740 Posts
jimx200
03-19-2021 at 09:37 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:37 AM.
Quote from kingburrito :
To all the folks saying why not electric when it's so easy to charge at home? A lot of us aren't able to do that... I rent near a beach and was specifically told no electric cars allowed (even though I have a private garage I think it's not wired to our meter, so whatever we use in the garage they'd get charged for).

I was genuinly interested in this even with a station 20-25 minutes away... But I want a hatchback and apparently in this you can't even fold the back seats down?? Not one person who surfs is going to buy this... And that's not an insignificant segment when the thing's only viable in Southern California and the Bay Area.

Bring back the Volt!
Thule or Yakama roof rack. Done. Although not as safe/secure as locked inside a vehicle.
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Original Poster
ExtremeOak
03-19-2021 at 09:37 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:37 AM.
Quote from TenseVest783 :
One more question, which dealer did you go to?
I'm looking at finding a similar deal like yours in the Los Ángeles area

I went to Longo. Bought from sales person Ken Tang, he's also a Mirai (older gen) owner and was a good resource for me.
Also a note, I got $1k discount for loyalty (have another Toyota at home).
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AndyP24
03-19-2021 at 09:38 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:38 AM.
Quote from VincentV2528 :
How much does it cost to fuel up full tank this car

The tank has 5.6 kg hydrogen capacity. The average cost is $16.5 per kg.
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jimx200
03-19-2021 at 09:40 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:40 AM.
Quote from Hounded :
Consider the dollar value of your time spent refueling. At $50/hour salary & 45 minutes going out of your way to find a station & possibly wait in line.. it will cost you $5,850 in lost time over 3 years. ($50 x .75 = $37.50 $37.50 x 52 weeks (fill up once per week) = $1,950 x 3 years = $5,850 )
LOL..dollar value? Laughable. How much time do you waste on SD? Goofy Post Award.
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AndyP24
03-19-2021 at 09:48 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:48 AM.
Quote from nigerianscammerhello :
This was my math. Reality is that the efficiency so far has not been up to 72 MPGe (closer to 55). So count the fuel card as about $10K in equivalent value to an ICE.

It's about a $12.5K re-badged Lexus with free financing.

No brainer for me as a city driver when I live near a hydrogen station. Bought one over the weekend. Pretty great for the price.

How much is your OTD price? Where did you buy it? I also bought one XLE red color for $33,000 OTD.
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BraveDime9640
03-19-2021 at 09:55 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:55 AM.
Quote from th3g3ntl3man :
This is my calculation as well, but to be fair the fuel car isn't really worth $15k but about half that due to the high cost of hydrogen. I'm hoping the price of fuel comes down over the next few years as more hydrogen cars hit the road.
"to be fairrrrrrhhhhh"
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anthony32376
03-19-2021 at 09:56 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:56 AM.
" complimentary $15,000 fuel card, which is good for about 50,000 miles or 6 years"

Ok so is this like a warranty in the way that it is 50k or 6 years whichever comes first ?
Or is that just an estimate of how long the fuel card will last and even if you have the car for 10 years and 70k miles you can still use the fuel card as long as there is still money left on the card?

Also what about an at home electrolyzer?
Do they exist and if so how much do they cost and how much in electricity would it cost for a fill up?

And what kind of range are we talking on a full tank?

Would it be same as gas?
Because with the low price of the car
I could see it being feasible outside of the LA/SF area if the electrolyzer is less that 3 or 4k
And if the car has a range on par with a traditional ICE

also is the fuel card transferable?
if I'm on the east coast could I sell the card?

if I could sell the card for 7k ,half price
and buy my own electrolyzer that would be even better
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Last edited by anthony32376 March 19, 2021 at 09:59 AM.

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time4sleep
03-19-2021 at 09:58 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:58 AM.
Nice WriteUp, Enjoy Your Car. looks Sweet inside and out. Smilie

Just like Electric, Hydrogen will be successful despite big oil campaigning against.
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emaij
03-19-2021 at 09:59 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:59 AM.
Quote from berkeflea :
You don't have an L2 charger at home? I'm in the Bay Area, on the EV-A rate plan. About $0.15/kw if I charge after 11pm.

Yes, Superchargers are about the same price as gas, usually a little cheaper though. Unfortunately, for people without home or free work charging, driving an EV isn't as cheap.
I do use the cheapest sdge option. After all the fees, it comes to about 19 cents per kwh but there is a $16 per month surcharge to gain access to that honor. So during covid, when I wasn't driving much, the $16 made my per kwh higher. SDGE does not permit switching back and forth between plans.
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BraveDime9640
03-19-2021 at 09:59 AM.
03-19-2021 at 09:59 AM.
My thought about all this is how can I run and uber or lyft service with this?

Burn through that free gas card. Collect the gas card money back as fast as possible. Be offering costumers a sweet new whip to commute in. Start up an H2/Mirai youtube channel. Get famous as "That H2 Guy" and make bank. Sleep in car because all of Cali is expensive. (From what Im told)
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Dr. J
03-19-2021 at 10:20 AM.
03-19-2021 at 10:20 AM.
Quote from slicknod :
I own one. Definitely the wrong forum to post this in even though it is truly a slick deal.

The media/Tesla have unfortunately shaped the consensus that fuel cells are have no future and thus, infrastructure has been slow to expand, funding may dry up and go directly to BEV related componentry and of course, sales will continue to slow down.
Hydrogen certainly has promise - but yet it comes down to infrastructure. Generally H2 storage isn't a big problem, even for accidents; plus, suboptimal electricity generation (e.g. excess at times when it's not used) can be used to generate H2 from water directly, so in essence it addresses the storage problem that the whole electric supply chain (to BEV) has. Plus, zero emissions except water vapor, which would just be the reverse of the reaction used to generate the H2 in the first place.

Back when I was in Argentina a couple years ago, NG for cars was very common but admittedly bizarre when I first got there. (still an ICE though).
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Coffae
03-19-2021 at 10:26 AM.
03-19-2021 at 10:26 AM.
Quote from NukinFuts :
Holding-out for a car burning methane.
Try a natural gas car NGV. That burns about 95% methane: https://www.uniongas.com/about-us...atural-gas

They have been out in production since 2004.
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HairlessApe
03-19-2021 at 10:34 AM.
03-19-2021 at 10:34 AM.
Quote from BraveDime9640 :
My thought about all this is how can I run and uber or lyft service with this?

Burn through that free gas card. Collect the gas card money back as fast as possible. Be offering costumers a sweet new whip to commute in. Start up an H2/Mirai youtube channel. Get famous as "That H2 Guy" and make bank. Sleep in car because all of Cali is expensive. (From what Im told)
You've got this all planned out my dude go for it!
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Coffae
03-19-2021 at 10:37 AM.
03-19-2021 at 10:37 AM.
Quote from McPiddles :
I've always felt this is the future of automobiles. Electric cars are great, except that the heavy metals that are necessary to build batteries are expensive and can, in ways, contribute a decent amount of pollution to the ecosystem. Furthermore, batteries are not that efficient.
I definitely agree the lack of infrastructure for H2 fuel stations is a HUGE problem for fuel cell vehicles; here's hoping that changes though.
OMIGOSH, you sound like a used gas car salesman. Have you added the part that fossil fuel emissions is way more destructive than battery production? Next thing you are going to say is that jobs will be lost...
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cnmuranjan
03-19-2021 at 10:37 AM.
03-19-2021 at 10:37 AM.
Im leasing 2018 Mirai and not renewing it further. Main cause - availability of H2 stations and dependency on them. I drove 20 miles to fillup the H2 only to know that it's already been depleted. You'll find 4-5 car deep queue at H2 stations all the time. 2021 Mirai now seats 5 people, but all previous versions only sit 4 people. Unless you get upgraded 2021 Mirai, you'll be missing on auto-hold, adaptive cruise and adaptive rain sensing features, which were standard in prev Miraiz.
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