The latest version of Toyota’s FCHV fuel cell hybrid vehicle has successfully completed a long-distance road test by travelling from Osaka to Tokyo on a single fuelling of hydrogen.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The approximately 560 kilometres journey was completed with the air conditioner on and with no refuelling stop.
Toyota said this latest FCHV is 25% more fuel efficient than earlier versions, due to improvements in the TMC-developed, high-performance FC Stack fuel cell and to improvements in the control system for managing fuel cell output and battery charging/discharging. It also features TMC-developed 70Mpa high-pressure hydrogen tanks capable of storing approximately twice the amount of hydrogen as the previous 35Mpa high-pressure tanks.
These improvements make it possible to achieve a single-fuelling cruising distance of approximately 750km (in the 10-15 Japanese test cycle, as calculated by TMC).
“In addition to issues related to cost and hydrogen storage methods, as well as other technical matters, the supply infrastructure and other issues of broad societal importance also need to be considered,” Toyota said. “TMC is actively working toward making fuel cell vehicles widespread by cooperating with the Japanese government, energy companies and other concerned entities. Against this backdrop, TMC is making steady progress in research and development related to, among others, cruising distance, low-temperature starts, durability and reduced costs.”
