Toyota Mirai to spawn more sub-models in the future?

The Toyota Mirai could very well spawn a family of sub-models in the future – a move its tree-hugging stablemate, the Toyota Prius, has already done to relative success. According to Autocar UK, the Mirai’s chief engineer, Yoshikazu Tanaka, has expressed his interest in seeing the Japanese carmaker’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle “procreate” and give rise to a number of related models.

However, interested parties are advised to hold back for a little longer as Tanaka has provided a time frame of around 10 to 20 years before the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars achieve the same level of maturity in the automotive industry – analysts have pegged the Mirai to be at the same point in which the Prius found itself at the end of the 90s in terms of customer awareness and whatnot.

While progress in the hydrogen fuel cell field is progressing, Tanaka has stressed that production of the Mirai itself will not be able to exceed the annual 3,000-unit mark and that doing so “would require a breakthrough in the way they are manufactured.” This is due to the time-consuming effort Toyota has to go through to produce each fuel cell stack in the Toyota Mirai.

Additionally, Tanaka has chosen to remain mum on the types of body styles regarding the models that the Mirai could spawn. However, a source has disclosed to the publication that estates, hatches, MPV and SUV variants are all under consideration. Also, Tanaka is keen to wait until the required infrastructure has been established to make the most of the powertrain advances before seeing to the Mirai’s expansion.

GALLERY: Toyota Mirai

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