The Japanese auto giant tossed the hydrogen-fuelled Corolla into its toughest test right away, entering it into the Super Tec 24-hour endurance race at the Fuji Speedway, in May. Motorsport, said Toyota, would be the best place to give the hydrogen combustion engine a shot at life, as learnings from the track would expedite the development process and help realise mass adoption of the powertrain at a much quicker pace. What has Toyota done to push development of the hydrogen combustion engine?Įarlier this year, Toyota converted the 1.6-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine from the Toyota GR Yaris hatchback to use compressed hydrogen, and plonked it into a Corolla hatchback racer. While these emissions are significantly lower than a petrol/diesel vehicle’s, FCEVs better H2 ICEs on this front, as they are true zero-emissions vehicles. The reason why it isn’t a zero-emissions application is because a minute amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is also emitted because of the burning of engine oil, and the combustion process in a H2 ICE leads to the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). With the combustion of hydrogen, the vehicle would mostly emit water vapour only.
The primary purpose of using hydrogen would be to turn a car into an ultra-low emissions vehicle. Existing engines can be adapted by changing certain components – such as the fuel delivery system and spark plugs – to use hydrogen instead of petrol or diesel, which means carmakers have a proven, time-tested base to build on and refine to further suit hydrogen applications, without making heavy investments on electric powertrains. Image: ToyotaĪ hydrogen ICE, like the name suggests, simplifies the hardware, as it is essentially the good old combustion engine converted to run on H2. Both the Hyundai and the Toyota use hydrogen to power the fuel cell, which turns the energy into electricity via a chemical reaction and powers an electric motor to propel the vehicle.Ī hydrogen internal combustion engine can be produced by simply making a set of modifications to existing petrol and diesel engines. At this time, the only FCEVs in production are the Hyundai Nexo crossover and the Toyota Mirai, with Honda recently having pulled the plug on the Clarity FCEV. However, despite several attempts, no carmaker has been able to push FCEVs into the mainstream spotlight, and as such, they continue to be a rarity. Yes, the world has seen a variety of hydrogen-based fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) – both in concept and production forms – over the last few decades. Haven’t hydrogen-powered vehicles been around for years? However, not every player wants to head down that route, and some prominent names are evaluating other forms of power sources for future vehicles, including using hydrogen as a fuel in an ICE vehicle.
Most automakers have already climbed aboard the promising electric mobility vessel, and are working to transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to ones powered by lithium-ion batteries. In a world faced with more uncertainty than ever, the only well-documented certainty is that fossil fuels will soon be ditched in favour of alternative energy sources for mobility applications worldwide.