This latest Toyota includes $15,000 of free fuel, could cost $17,000

• Southern California shoppers might rise up to 70% off hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai
• Bay Area customers can get discounts too
• Sales have slowed, and the worth of hydrogen has soared

In case you live in Southern California, you’ll be able to buy a brand new Toyota for about the price of the most cost effective subcompact automotive—with $15,000 of free fuel.

That automotive is the 2024 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedan. CarsDirect reports that Toyota is offering discounts of as much as 70% off the bottom XLE grade, which is generally priced at $51,285 (including destination). That brings the worth right down to $17,005 with destination, or inside a couple of hundred dollars of a gasoline Nissan Versa sedan. The Mirai Limited, which normally retails for $68,210 after destination, now costs just $25,210 with this discount.

Like other fuel-cell cars, the Mirai is just available in California because other states lack sufficient fueling infrastructure. But these deals only apply to residents within the southern portion of the state. Discounts in Northern California are lower, but still significant—at $25,000 off the XLE and $33,000 off the Limited. Toyota can also be, for now, offering lease incentives of as much as $7,500.

Mirai customers also get $15,000 of free fuel over as much as six years, a perk Toyota was already offering. In XLE trim, the Mirai returns 72 miles per kilogram of hydrogen, in accordance with the automaker, so this credit still amounts to greater than 30,000 free miles even at the height price of $34.55/kg California experienced last October.

That was only the most recent in a line of supply disruptions affecting consumer-level fuel-cell vehicles lately—as an infrastructure for business trucks and industry builds out. An unreliable hydrogen supply has likely contributed to sluggish sales of the Mirai. Toyota reports that within the U.S. it delivered just 499 of the fuel-cell sedans in 2024, down from 2,737 in 2023.

2024 Toyota Mirai

The Mirai is not a foul automotive. While the primary generation felt akin to a Prius, the present generation looks like a luxury automotive, with ride quality, handling, and low noise, vibration, and harshness levels comparable to the gasoline and hydrid sedans from Toyota’s upmarket Lexus brand.

While Toyota claims the current-generation Mirai effectively cleans the air as you drive—what the automaker calls “minus emissions”—hydrogen must be cleanly produced and available for that to occur. Studies earlier this decade suggested that hydrogen would turn into greener and even cost-competitive with gasoline by the top of the last decade. But the worth of hydrogen has as a substitute soared.