Toyota Has Ambitious Plans For Stunning 2021 Mirai

To say we were shocked by the2021 Toyota Miraiis a bit of an understatement. What is currently a rather frumpy-looking sedan will soon become a stunning large luxury sedan. Not only does the redesigned Mirai sport fantastic styling inside and out, but it also rides on a rear-wheel-drive platform, the very same architecture that underpins theLexus LS 500flagship. Why the sudden and dramatic change? Turns out there were several reasons why.

Road & Trackspoke to the Mirai's chief engineer, Yoshikazu Tanaka, at the LA Auto Show last month and he revealed there was a genuine technical reason for using this platform.

Turns out opting for RWD created more space for the hydrogen tanks. Given that hydrogen refueling stations are not so common, Tanaka and his team wanted to increase the vehicle's range.

"We needed to extract the full potential of what the vehicle could be, and because you have these infrastructure limitations, we needed to make a car that was super appealing to these customers," Tanaka said. "So just looking good isn't enough. Just because you have extended driving range, that's not enough. The most important thing is it has to drive well, and it has to have good performance."