Hydrogen-powered GR Yaris debuts in Europe
Toyota used the Ypres Rally to demonstrate its GR Yaris H2 outside of Japan for the first time
When we last talked about Toyota’s hydrogen-powered GR Yaris, it kicked off an extensive discussion in the forums about the pros and cons of hydrogen fuel in general. Whether you think it a pointless, inefficient sideshow or a nailed-on certainty when it comes to the future of internal combustion, Toyota is still quite keen on the idea (naturally it is also keen on several other ideas, too) and has underlined that fact by demonstrating the car on public roads outside Japan for the first time.
And we’re not talking a trundle round an industrial estate, either. Oh no. The GR Yaris H2 featured in none other than the ninth round of the WRC in Ypres. Okay, so it was only on a single stage, and the car ran ahead of the safety car before the real action kicked off - but still, it was an enthusiastic squirt down a 15km course of ‘extremely narrow farm roads that ran along fields and between houses’. It doesn’t get anymore ‘real-world’ than that.
Moreover, it was driven by none other than Akio Toyoda in his ‘Morizo’ chief test driver guise. And Toyota's guv’nor can’t sit in a GR Yaris without driving it enthusiastically - especially when he’s got four-time WRC champion Juha Kankkunen doing the pace notes. In case you’d forgotten, the H2 is said to be more or less identical to the standard GR, with only a strengthened block and modified injection system distinguishing the three-cylinder motor from its petrol-chewing equivalent.
Of course, the appearance of the car in Belgium is unlikely to have PHers opting for a different side of the fence in the ongoing debate about hydrogen fuel - but for what it’s worth, there does seem to be an ongoing correlation between Toyoda’s proximity to a project and Toyota’s in-house enthusiasm for it going forward. And while he was quick to highlight the presence of a Mirai at the event (the manufacturer’s current hydrogen fuel-cell car), it’s readily apparent that the CEO is still very keen on the idea of conventional combustion engines powered by unconventional means.
Kankkunen is predictably partial to the idea, too. “The hydrogen engine put out solid torque, making it no different from a gasoline engine. Because they emit zero CO2, I believe hydrogen engines will become one of the options for achieving carbon neutrality not only in the world of motorsports but also in the world of everyday cars.”
It’s worth noting that Toyota still hasn’t put a figure next to that ‘solid torque’, and has so far declined to relate performance figures for the H2 either. The concept remains a work in progress, as do the firm’s other research programmes - including running a modified Corolla in Japan's Super Taikyu race series. But, as Toyoda stated for the record when the car was revealed last year, the real appeal of hydrogen-based fuelling is the delivery of “almost zero emissions while retaining the acoustic and sensory sensations typical for combustion engines." Extensive production-based hurdles aside, that sentiment still sounds pretty good to us.
JCB are doing some very serious work on it.
And if it allows some enthusiastic cars to be ICE’d then that’s a bonus too.
Lots of work ongoing at the minute to increase green hydrogen and massively improve storage.
It isnt beyond the wit of man to see the large pressure vessels needed buried under filling stations similar to petrol tanks now and modified pumps springing up. Just needs some of the major manufactures to make the right noises about utilising it in their future models.
Maybe not every filling station but several in every major town and city…….
Hydrogen certainly has a future in various industrial seeings and probably for large-scale transport, but if it's ever going to be a significant proportion of the personal car market it's not likely to happen in my lifetime. By the time it does happen we'll have to have found a solution to the EV charging problem for the masses anyway which will probably make hydrogen a pretty niche market.
I do wonder if we'll eventually see very small HFC range extenders as an optional extra in some EVs.
And as going forward we will have renewables making electricity when the grid doesn’t want or need it, it will be diverted to hydrogen creation.
Only problem at the minute is the volume of hydrogen storage available. But even that is being worked on with potential to improve into underground caverns, old oil wells, mines etc
We live in a little village in the middle of Devon.
I can but imagine what the cost would be to upgrade the local electrical infrastructure in the coming years, especially if we had the leccy, and the holes in the ground, and someone to do the work and somewhere to put the charging box, and someone to wire up the charging box...
Ah, about that!
https://www.wired.com/2007/09/lenos-best-joke/
We live in a little village in the middle of Devon.
I can but imagine what the cost would be to upgrade the local electrical infrastructure in the coming years, especially if we had the leccy, and the holes in the ground, and someone to do the work and somewhere to put the charging box, and someone to wire up the charging box...
Ah, about that!
(I've assumed it's a joke, but for anyone who might scratch their head - it's stored as a liquid so its greater nett mass than air
)180 litre tank for half an hour of race pace at Tsukuba is a hefty consumption though, I think that works out to about 5.5/6 litres a lap.
https://youtu.be/oZwmAKZsqYo
(I've assumed it's a joke, but for anyone who might scratch their head - it's stored as a liquid so its greater nett mass than air
)Pretty sure hydrogen needs to be cryogenic temps to be a liquid. You wouldn't develop a tech like that for mainstream use, waste of time and money. Imagine average joe filling up their car and accidentally touching the fuel filler neck afterwards. bye bye fingers! lol
(I've assumed it's a joke, but for anyone who might scratch their head - it's stored as a liquid so its greater nett mass than air
)Pretty sure hydrogen needs to be cryogenic temps to be a liquid. You wouldn't develop a tech like that for mainstream use, waste of time and money. Imagine average joe filling up their car and accidentally touching the fuel filler neck afterwards. bye bye fingers! lol
The consumption rate of burning it in an IC engine is ridiculous, and if you're making hydrogen cleanly then you need loads of power to do it. At least synthetic fuels for motorsport don't need hefty pressure vessels to contain it.
As for
Electric just isn't convenient enough, and it's going to be a very long time before it is.
12 hydrogen cars registered in the UK last year vs 190k battery EVs. If it's the way forward how will that chicken/egg situation get resolved?
We do actually have mains gas, sewage, and fibre broadband, much to the surprise of many visiting friends / relatives who have s
te broadband in major conurbations.Ironically I have solar panels on a workshop I rent, and a pleasantly low cost per kwh to boot, but most of the time I work from home...
Hence in the hopefully not completely impossible chance of me buying a new car in X years time, it'll have to be a hybrid - which I imagine HMG will change to the rules to allow, when a bit of reality finally sinks in.
Until then, I'm well happy with my 2009 320d estate.
Jay.
Hydrogen certainly has a future in various industrial seeings and probably for large-scale transport, but if it's ever going to be a significant proportion of the personal car market it's not likely to happen in my lifetime. By the time it does happen we'll have to have found a solution to the EV charging problem for the masses anyway which will probably make hydrogen a pretty niche market.
I do wonder if we'll eventually see very small HFC range extenders as an optional extra in some EVs.
There are plenty of rapid charger locations in Devon. Crazy idea I know, but could you not drive the short distance to one and charge up?
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