OYAMA, Japan — Toyota is teasing a extra sensible setup of its new hydrogen-burning engine in a automobile that common folks may truly purchase sometime: the Corolla Cross subcompact crossover.
With the Yaris and Corolla hatchbacks that Toyota has been tinkering with till now, the hydrogen tanks refill the again seat, relegating the already cramped vehicles to mere two-seaters.
However within the Corolla Cross, the sizable hydrogen gasoline tanks match underneath the ground, permitting the automobile to seat 5.
The Corolla Cross H2 Idea is only one of many developments in hydrogen combustion that Toyota Motor Corp. rolled out over the weekend at Fuji Speedway, the place President Akio Toyoda piloted a hydrogen-burning GR Corolla hatchback in a 24-hour endurance race.
His blue-and-yellow No. 32 race automobile has acquired a slew of tweaks since last year’s season — to improve energy, efficiency and reliability. And Toyota additionally unveiled expertise for utilizing liquefied hydrogen, as an alternative of gaseous, to enhance vitality density and double the driving vary.
The corporate hopes to begin utilizing liquefied hydrogen in precise races by the tip of the yr.
Toyota is about 40 % of the best way towards commercializing its hydrogen combustion expertise, mentioned Koji Sato, head of the carmaker’s hydrogen combustion racing program.
“It’s already a part of the mass manufacturing product growth cycle,” Sato, who additionally leads the Lexus premium model along with the Gazoo Racing motorsports arm, informed Automotive Information.
The racing and business applications work in parallel, with shut cross-pollination, he mentioned.
“The aim is to commercialize, and we’re making stable progress towards that aim.”
Excessive efficiency
A check drive of the hydrogen expertise on the sidelines of the race demonstrated its attraction.
The modified 1.6-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine, mounted in a six-speed guide GR Yaris H2, tore by means of a fast trial course. Hydrogen burns extra shortly than gasoline, making the powertrain very responsive.
Maybe too responsive — RPMs shortly hit the pink line.
The hydrogen three-banger debuted final yr. And after a lot refinement, the newest replace provides higher response, acceleration and torque than its gasoline counterpart, engineers say.
The weekend race within the foothills of Mount Fuji was the newest salvo in Japan’s marketing campaign to claim to the worldwide auto trade that electric vehicles aren’t the only road to carbon neutrality.
The 24-hour run has turn into a form of proving ground-cum-grandstand to showcase that effort.
Japanese automakers are selling different paths to carbon neutrality as a pushback to an industry gone gaga over full EVs. Worldwide carmakers are plowing lots of of billions of {dollars} to leapfrog straight from gasoline inner combustion to battery-electrics.
Japanese automakers, led by Toyota, are extra circumspect, saying there’s ample room for different applied sciences, together with hybrid drivetrains, carbon impartial fuels and hydrogen setups.
Nissan on board
Nissan Motor Co. was the newest to join the bandwagon at Fuji Speedway.
Nissan entered a racing idea of its redesigned, seventh-generation Z sports car that runs on carbon impartial gasoline, or CNF. The No. 230 blue-and-white Z car has a 3.0-liter V-6 turbocharged engine burning biofuel constructed from waste reminiscent of wooden chips or used cooking oil.
Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta mentioned the Z supplies a clear, inexperienced technique to protect the joys of engine roar within the coming carbon impartial age and maintain conventional race followers coming again to the observe. This enhances, he mentioned, the silent exhilaration of the all-electric System E circuit, by which Nissan additionally participates. “Electrification is only a consequence, not a aim in itself,” Gupta mentioned.
Subaru and Mazda stuffed out the carbon impartial area in a particular experimental automobile class.
Subaru entered a BRZ sports activities coupe operating on biomass-derived artificial gasoline. Mazda deployed a Mazda2 racer powered by a 1.5-liter Skyactiv-D biodiesel engine.
Value nonetheless stays an enormous hurdle for such carbon impartial fuels. The corporate making Mazda’s biodiesel from used cooking oil and microalgae fats says its prices almost $300 per gallon.
That can possible bar it from neighborhood fuel pumps for fairly a while.
Mazda’s was the one carbon impartial entry to not end the race. It was carted off the observe not too lengthy earlier than the end. Toyota’s hydrogen GR Corolla accomplished the 24-hour grind for a second yr in a row, regardless of a protracted in a single day pit cease following a crash.
Toyoda mentioned it was necessary to maintain exploring quite a lot of carbon impartial methods.
“Some assume it is solely about concentrating funding in electrical automobiles. However it’s a business-to-consumer trade. So diversified choices can be needed,” Toyoda mentioned.
“After a yr of speaking about this, we’re seeing a change within the dialogue.”