Mirai Owners Want $5.7 Billion From Toyota

Mirai owners filed a class action in California in 2025 that accuses Toyota of knowingly selling Mirai hydrogen cars into a fueling network that couldn’t support them, and it seeks at least $5.7 billion in damages.

The suit was brought by three Mirai owners on behalf of everyone in California who bought or leased a Mirai from 2016 through 2025. It names Toyota, its dealers and its credit arm, and it relies on the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, to accuse the company of a scheme to defraud customers through misleading marketing.

Autoblog reported the filing in November 2025, in a story republished by Hydrogen Central. The complaint says owners struggled to find working stations and that Toyota concealed reliability problems including fuel leaks, failed refueling and acceleration issues. It also takes aim at Toyota’s claim that a fill-up takes about five minutes, arguing that stations were often down for maintenance, out of fuel or closed for good, and that Shell’s closure of its hydrogen stations led to long lines at the ones that remained.

According to the same report, Toyota acknowledged serious disruptions to the hydrogen network and said it had paused Mirai sales in some areas, including Sacramento. The company said it was helping owners with service credits, rental cars and case-by-case assistance.

The fight has since spread to owners’ credit reports. In December, CBS News Bay Area reported that 700 Mirai owners were suing Toyota over fuel availability, and attorney Jason Ingber said a letter from a Toyota attorney had told owners no action would be taken if they stopped making payments. In January, Carscoops reported that several owners who paused payments were then sent to collections, with one saying his score dropped 100 points overnight from 814. Toyota later reversed that owner’s missed-payment report, according to Carscoops, though his score didn’t fully recover. Neither CBS nor Carscoops published a response from Toyota.

Toyota Report found no published report of a ruling in the case, so the $5.7 billion figure remains a demand rather than an award.

Meanwhile, the Mirai is still on sale. Toyota sold just 210 of them in the U.S. in 2025, according to its year-end sales report, and 212 through September 2026, according to its third-quarter report. The 2026 model starts at $51,795 and still comes with up to $15,000 of complimentary hydrogen.

The Toyota Report Take

Whatever happens to the RICO claims in court, the core complaint is hard to dismiss, because owners were sold a car that depends on a fueling network Toyota didn’t control and couldn’t keep running. The collections episode made things worse, because if owners really were told they could stop paying and were then reported to collectors, as they say, that is exactly the kind of mistake that turns a product problem into a trust problem. Toyota would be wise to settle with these owners on fair terms before a judge decides it for them.