Tested on the racetrack, this clean-burning fuel offers an alternative to EVs for zero-carbon emissions transportation.

With the automotive industry headed toward greener transportation, electric vehicles have been the face of the shift. Meanwhile, another promising clean technology is quietly coming to the fore – hydrogen. A future in which hydrogen vehicles share the road seems increasingly possible as numerous established automakers such as BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, and others continue to invest in hydrogen tech development.

The understanding of hydrogen in the automotive space centers around fuel cells, which convert hydrogen gas into electricity for propulsion. However, that's not the only way hydrogen can be used to power a car, as one of Toyota's latest concept vehicles reveals.

Toyota has taken many routes to reach carbon neutrality, and hydrogen combustion technology is one of those solutions.

This week, Toyota unveiled the Corolla Cross Hydrogen Concept. Unlike other hydrogen-powered vehicles, this concept does not use a traditional fuel cell. Instead, this car uses the 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-3 combustion engine from the GR Corolla, modified to use compressed hydrogen instead of gasoline.

It follows the same combustion cycle as a gas engine: fuel and air enter the cylinder, are compressed, ignited, and removed.

Burning hydrogen, however, replaces the noxious emissions from burning gasoline with water as its only waste product and creates an alternative to electric propulsion, avoiding the need to source massive amounts of critical minerals and toxic chemistries.

Toyota believes this tech could notably speed up global zero-emissions accomplishments in the automotive space.

A multi-tech approach

Toyota's strategy towards carbon neutrality lies in establishing several technologies to meet various global and commercial conditions. These involve battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and now hydrogen combustion vehicles.

Using these different strategies, the Japanese automaker intends to offer its global customers tailor-made options to decrease their carbon impact, regardless of the situation. The company firmly holds that parallel development of multiple technological approaches to solve for green energy should include hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen combustion, and battery electric technologies.

This methodology allows the company to explore solutions that suit regional infrastructure, energy sources and customers' choices, thus providing a more balanced and sound transition into a carbon-neutral automotive industry.

Motorsports proving grounds

Toyota has effectively used its presence in motorsport events to advance the research and development of hydrogen combustion technology, competing extensively in Super Taikyu endurance races in Japan with a GR Corolla H2 hydrogen car. Toyota's hydrogen race car has reached near parity with conventional gas combustion engines, allowing for significant improvements in performance concerning power, torque, and range, as well as a reduction in refueling time (from roughly five minutes to about 90 seconds.)

The data received from these tests has sped the development of hydrogen combustion technology and established a basis for the use of this innovation in road vehicles, as well as advancing a network of partnerships in non-auto sectors of green hydrogen and logistics.

Utilizing these achievements in motorsports, the Corolla Cross Hydrogen Concept is a prototype proving hydrogen combustion tech is feasible in standard vehicles. It uses H35 high-pressure hydrogen direct injection engine technology from racing and the hydrogen tank packaging experience from the Mirai fuel cell vehicle.

This concept car presents further opportunities for the application of hydrogen combustion that would allow one to refuel quickly and diversify the use of critical minerals away from just those needed for batteries.

Based on the comprehensive strategy of working across multiple fronts towards developing zero-emission transportation technologies, Toyota is also pushing the boundaries with a diverse range of options to make transportation eco-friendly.