3rd Gear: Toyota’s Hydrogen Party Trick

by Erik Shilling(Jalopnik) Toyota has a hydrogen-combustion racecar that sounds pretty good, and which it put through its paces last month. Automotive News was there for it. Toyota still apparently thinks hydrogen combustion is part of the future, which is a little dubious, but I appreciate the effort.

[Toyota president Akio Toyoda’s] message here was as loud as the engine’s redline wail: Policymakers should butt out of dictating battery-electric vehicles, because myriad other technologies — including combustion — can be green and clean.

“The ultimate goal is carbon neutrality,” Toyoda said after completing the Fuji Super Tec 24-hour endurance race, where he rotated behind the wheel with five other drivers. “It shouldn’t be about rejecting hybrids and gasoline cars and only selling fuel cells and battery-electric cars. We want to expand the choices available in the path to carbon neutrality. This is the first step.”

To skeptics, Toyoda’s May 22-23 run in the foothills of Mount Fuji may seem like a desperate last stand for a technology on deathwatch. Or a fig leaf for Toyota’s slow, seemingly reluctant shift into battery-electrics, as competitors at home and abroad invest billions into EV-only futures.

But seen another way, Toyota Motor Corp. is opening a new front in the war on greenhouse gas emissions. Toyota believes technological breakthroughs, such as this one, can give internal combustion a new lease on life — saving jobs as well as the environment. It is a debate over the best road to net-zero carbon, with a pushback against government mandates that reflexively phase out internal combustion in favor of EVs.

Excerpt from Toyota Europe: The journey started on May 26 from the Hysetco hydrogen station in Orly and finished after driving 1,003 km on one single fill. The 1,003 zero-emission kilometers were driven on public roads, south of Paris and in the Loir-et-Cher and Indre-et-Loire areas, and the distance & consumption were certified by an independent authority. Green hydrogen was used during the record attempt and the average fuel consumption was 0.55 kg/100km, with Mirai being able to store 5.6 kg of hydrogen.

The new Mirai is the second-generation fuel cell vehicle from Toyota. It offers more performance, a sleeker and more dynamic design and new driving dynamics compared to the first-generation product. In addition, the increased efficiency of the fuel cell system, together with higher hydrogen storage capacity and better aerodynamics, contribute to an increase of driving range to around 650 km under normal driving conditions, with less than 5 minutes refueling time at a 700 bar refueling station.

The four drivers that completed the record attempt included Victorien Erussard, the founder and captain of Energy Observer. Energy Observer, the first boat equipped with a Toyota fuel cell and project for which Toyota is a partner. James Olden, an engineer at Toyota Motor Europe; Maxime le Hir, Mirai product manager; and Marie Gadd, PR manager of Toyota France, were the other three drivers.

“It’s an amazing challenge that we achieved with the new Mirai. Internally, it is the mindset of Start your Impossible, going beyond our own limits, that drives us, and we proved it again today. I would like to thank the teams of Toyota France and Toyota Europe, as well as Victorien at Energy Observer, with whom we share the same vision and the same ambition. It is by strong partnerships that we will be able to contribute to a better and more environmentally-friendly society,” said Frank Marotte, CEO of Toyota France.

“I am very happy to have taken this challenge of 1,000 km beyond the wheel of the new Mirai. Toyota has always been at the forefront of hydrogen innovation and our collaboration gets stronger year by year. As a former open ocean racer, I need to take challenges and I warmly thank Frank Marotte and his teams to have taken me on this zero-emission adventure, showing that nothing is impossible and that hydrogen mobility is here today!” commented Victorien Erussad. READ MORE