Toyota Corolla with hydrogen engine successfully completed 24-hour race

Published: May 27, 2021 12:16 PM | Last Updated: May 27, 2021 12:27 PM


A Toyota Corolla sports hatchback equipped with an internal combustion engine running on liquefied hydrogen has completed the 24-hour Super Taikyu race, becoming the first such car in history to complete the test, Nikkei reports.
The car in question wasunveiled at the end of April. Unlike most modern hydrogen cars, which use hydrogen fuel cells as a source of energy for electric motors, the experimental hatchback is equipped with a 1.6-liter three-cylinder engine from the Toyota Yaris GR, which has been modified to run on liquefied hydrogen. The use of such fuel makes the car environmentally friendly - a small amount of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere as a result of oil combustion in the engine, but the hydrogen itself burns without by-products.
However, the hydrogen car has not yet been able to compete equally with gasoline cars in the race: in 24 hours, the hatchback was refueled 35 times, while its competitors required about 20 pit stops. At the same time, refueling four special tanks of the hydrogen car with hydrogen took 6-7 minutes, and in this indicator, the car also lost to its competitors. In total, the hydrogen car drove 358 laps on the former Formula 1 track "Fuji Speedway", while the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, which won the race, drove over 700 laps, Asia Times notes.
3⃣5⃣8⃣ laps completed!
History has been made! ???? The hydrogen-powered ORC @ROOKIE_Racing_ Corolla H2 Concept has finished its first race. And outside of a problem with the electrical system during the night, the car ran without any major issues. #SuperTaikyu #S耐#Fuji24h pic.twitter.com/T5Ir2bCDcv
— geinou (@geinou) May 23, 2021
Despite this, Toyota intends to continue working on the hydrogen ICE and eliminate the existing shortcomings of the technology. In the future, the company expects to bring such engines to the market and turn environmentally friendly hydrogen cars into competitors to electric vehicles.
Let us recall that hydrogen is also being considered as a replacement for natural gas in everyday life. Thus, in December last year, it was reported that almost 300 residential buildings in the Scottish county of Fife would be converted from natural gas to hydrogen, which would be used for heating and cooking. This is the first experiment of its kind in the world. As part of this project, the purpose of which is to study the possibility of abandoning natural gas, hydrogen boilers and cookers will be installed in the houses. The experiment is expected to last more than four years - the houses participating in it will be converted to hydrogen for free by the end of 2022, and if the first phase is successful, up to 1,000 more houses may join the experiment.
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