Toyota is getting closer to road-going hydrogen-powered combustion engines

Thursday, 24 June 2021

Toyota has shared a sound clip of its hydrogen-powered combustion engine. Sounds pretty good to us.

Toyota is getting closer to hydrogen-powered combustion engines. That’s a very good thing for people that aren’t convinced by the sci-fi hum of EVs, because it means grumbly V8s, howling straight-sixes and burbly turbo-fours get a bonus lease on life by virtue of emitting little to no emissions.

The Japanese manufacturer had a prototype Corolla running in a recent 24-hour endurance race at Fuji Speedway in Japan, using a slightly tweaked version of the 1.6-litre turbocharged triple found in the GR Yaris.

The only changes Toyota made were the fuel delivery system and spark plugs, as well installing four hydrogen storage tanks and the associated piping from the hydrogen Mirai. It does still require some engine oil for lubrication but the combustion doesn’t produce CO2.

Toyota ran this Corolla at a 24-hour race, with a hydrogen-powered combustion engine.

Despite the car spending half of the 24-hour race in the garage for repairs and hydrogen top-ups, Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda, called the run a success. He told the Toyota Times: 'It’s amazing that we completed the race… This means we ran over 1500km [932 miles], right?

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Some engine oil is still required for lubrication but no CO2 is emitted during combustion.

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'We faced many problems, but thanks to everyone’s hard effort, we completed the race with a car almost at a shakedown stage. I believe there were many findings because we made the car ready in time for this race.'

Part of the reason for the limited track time was that hydrogen doesn't offer the same efficiency as petrol. It needs more storage and combustion space compared to liquid fuel, which ultimately meant the Corolla was running at roughly a third of the efficiency of a petrol car.

'Toyota believes that our responsibility is to provide several options for each customer's situation,” said Naoyuki Sakamoto, chief engineer for the project.

“The purpose of this project is to study new options to go carbon-neutral.

'We, as an industry, have been working on combustion engines and accumulating knowledge and technology for many years. So it's worth a try to use internal combustion engine technology for carbon neutrality.'

Using the race as a test-bed allowed Toyota to find and look through issues at a quicker pace than a traditional combustion development cycle for production cars.

Toyota has pledged to continue developing the technology in motorsport applications to evaluate its production feasibility. The carmaker’s work on hydrogen is part of its strategy to reduce its vehicles’ CO2 emissions by 90 per cent before 2050, compared to 2010 levels.