Toyota's zero-emission vehicle sales in California this year amount to a drop of hydrogen in an ocean of gasoline.

The world's largest automaker has so far sold about 270 fuel cell cars in the state, where it delivered nearly 400,000 gasoline-powered vehicles last year, according to an Edmunds.com analysis of IHS Markit data. Toyota does not currently sell an electric vehicle.

And yet the automaker will have no trouble meeting California's zero-emission vehicle mandates, because it can satisfy those obligations with state-awarded environmental credits instead of current zero-emission vehicle sales.