There
are futuristic-looking cars, then there are cars that are actually
futuristic. The 2016 Toyota Mirai is definitely one of the latter, soon
to take its place in history as the first car to bring hydrogen
fuel-cell technology to the masses — something you can buy, keep and
pass on to your kids when you get old, who by then, will laugh at the
idea that at one point, someone thought it was futuristic.
But
for now, the Mirai is the future — literally: the name means “future”
in Japanese — and Toyota hopes that it will follow in the treads of the
successful Prius (whose name means “predecessor” in Latin,
incidentally). And this so-called future will become the present
starting in the third quarter of 2015.
Like
the Prius, the Mirai is not an overtly beautiful creature (yes, that’s
some understatement) but it was styled quite deliberately to break the
mold. “It’s no secret
that when we launched Prius, we decided that making it look different
than any other car on the road was a risk worth taking,” said Satoshi
Ogiso, Managing Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation. “Prius styling was
distinctive then and still is today. We think Mirai will be as well. If
the name of your car means ‘the future,’ it had better look
futuristic.”
Still,
the Mirai has a face only an aerodynamicist could love. A clone of the
FCV Concept that Toyota trotted around to auto shows in 2013, the Mirai
is roughly the same size as the Camry Hybrid, with 2.5 inches more
height and an aerodynamic underbody that’s an inch closer to the ground.
Like the FCV Concept, the Mirai has gaping triangular outboard air
intakes, vertical turn signals, “floating” hood and roof panels and four
menacing-looking LED headlamps on each side.
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