First prototypes on the road in 2023
Toyota is getting deeper and deeper into hydrogen technology. With the Mirai, it has had an electrically powered car with a fuel cell on board for years, but Toyota is also busy developing combustion engines that use hydrogen as fuel. Together with a number of British companies, Toyota is starting to develop a fuel cell Hilux.
Toyota believes in a wide application of hydrogen in cars. The most famous proof of this is the Mirai. This electric sedan is powered by electric motors, which draw their required energy from a fuel cell. The second generation Mirai has been driving around for a while now. But Toyota also believes in the use of hydrogen as a fuel. Since 2021, a Corolla with a hydrogen combustion engine has been blasting the tracks in the Japanese Super Taikyu racing series and Toyota recently showed the experimental GR Yaris Hydrogen. It has a 1.6 three-cylinder engine that is able to use hydrogen directly as fuel. Together with a British consortium, Toyota is now developing a Hilux with a fuel cell on board. Apparently, the car also has a combustion engine under the hood.
Toyota Hilux with hydrogen tanks.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK is leading the project, the UK branch backed by a Toyota Motor Europe engineering team. The Toyota Hilux Hydrogen – or Hilux H2 – of which the manufacturer already shows a series of images, partly receives technology from the Mirai. It is striking that the above technical drawing also shows an internal combustion engine. Because Toyota actually talks about the presence of a fuel cell, it is unlikely that the Hilux Hydrogen uses hydrogen as fuel. The first prototypes should be built in Burnaston, England, in the course of 2023. If those prototypes meet expectations, Toyota wants to take the Hilux Hydrogen into small-scale production.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl