Toyota has delivered its first ever hydrogen powered car, the Toyota Mirai, with its first customer in Belgium announced as the ‘Hydrogenics Corporation’.

The company is a leading manufacturer and developer of hydrogen fuel cell power and hydrogen generation technology, and will be Toyota’s first Belgian customer to take on the Mirai.

‘Mirai’ means ‘future’ in Japanese and will be the first sedan in the world to powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

The car’s electrical power is generated in the fuel cell stack, in which oxygen taken is taken from the air to react with the hydrogen from the tank, resulting in no emissions from the tailpipe apart from water.

Managing Director of Hydrogenics Belgium, Filip Smeets, said that the company is thrilled to be Belgium’s first Toyota Mirai customer, and has further established itself as a force in the renewable hydrogen field.

The firm says that it is convinced that in the future, hydrogen mobility will be the most appealing option for green mobility vehicles, due to its short refuelling time and larger driving range in comparison to other green vehicle power methods.

Furthermore, the Flemish Government have agreed to support the opening of 20 publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling stations in the next four years, which would be enough to provide a station for the whole population of Flanders in a 25km radius.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars will be exempt from traffic tax and registration fees in Flanders, in the same way as battery electric cars.

Vice Minister President of the Flemish Government, Bart Tommelein, said that the future of the automotive industry is in green vehicles and that they will help provide a way of improving air quality and reducing pollution.

He added that due to their emission of nothing but water vapour, they are much more friendly to the environment than diesel or petrol powered vehicles.