It comes after a successful trial period saw two Toyota Mirai cars complete more than 25,000 miles a year since 2015.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling yesterday (2 May) became the first person to drive one of the new cars. “I was thoroughly impressed by the Toyota Mirai today and was delighted to be the first passenger in one of Green Tomato Cars’ new zero-emission vehicles,” he said.

“Improvements in hydrogen infrastructure over the last year and the developing partnerships between the hydrogen power providers, manufacturers of hydrogen vehicles and end-users, are helping accelerate the decarbonisation of road transport.”

‘Truly unique’

The new vehicles will be allocated to standard Green Tomato Cars bookings across London and the Home Counties.  

The Mirai are expected to do the same average mileage as other cars on the Green Tomato Cars fleet – around 130-150 miles a day. The model can travel up to 300 miles on a full tank of hydrogen, and Green Tomato Cars believes the private hire cars should refuel every two days on average.

The company received the support of the UK’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) Hydrogen for Transport Programme and the EU Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) programme.

Green Tomato Cars’ co-founder Jonny Goldstone said: “We’re very proud to have pioneered hydrogen-powered transport in London and are delighted with the performance of our two original Toyota Mirai.  

“This is a truly unique project where investors in hydrogen technology, manufacturers of hydrogen cars and Green Tomato Cars as the end-users, have come together with a commitment to make hydrogen transport work for the good of the people and the environment.”

Hydrogen infrastructure improvements have increased the viability of the technology in Britain. The past 12 months has seen several new hydrogen fuelling stations open across the country, including Shell Beaconsfield on the M40, which recently became UK site to bring hydrogen under the same canopy as petrol and diesel.

George Ogleby

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