Toyota presents the GR Yaris H2, a modified version of its turbulent city car, including the three-cylinder turbo carbide hydrogen. The design of this prototype follows the experimentation of this technology in competition, but no production is planned in the short term.
Since May 2021, Toyota has been testing a Corolla Sport equipped with a hydrogen engine in competition in Japan. This racing compact is not equipped with a fuel cell powering an electric motor like the few hydrogen cars on the market (Mirai in particular), but with a thermal block using hydrogen as fuel. This 1.6 l turbo direct injection three-cylinder engine is a modified version of the G16E-GTS engine of the GR Yaris. Like a return to the sender, Toyota today presents a prototype of the GR Yaris fueled by hydrogen, housing the same engine under its hood.
Full throttle towards hydrogen at Toyota
To allow this GR Yaris H2 to run on hydrogen, the fuel system and the engine injection system have been modified. The tanks come from the Mirai. Several manufacturers had experimented with hydrogen in liquid state as a fuel for traditional engines in the past, such as BMW or Mazda. But for several reasons, one of which was poor performance, this work was not considered conclusive. Toyota compensates by using hydrogen in gaseous form here, which makes it possible to offer performances close to those of unleaded gasoline according to the manufacturer, which however does not reveal any figures. “Hydrogen burns faster than gasoline, which results in good engine liveliness, while providing excellent environmental performance, ensures the brand.“
Toyota has been working on this type of hydrogen engine since 2017.
Almost a production GR Yaris
This implies that marketing is considered in the medium or long term depending on the results obtained. The presentation of this GR Yaris with an almost original look abounds in this direction. Like synthetic fuels, it could be a way to save heat engines, which the European Union plans to ban the sale from 2035. Toyota will continue its racing experiments. But to see this interesting solution break through, the production and distribution of “green” hydrogen, without fossil fuels, would also have to become much less anecdotal than today.
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