One of the great things about the Goodwood Festival of Speed is that while the focus is on awesome cars from all levels and eras of road, track and rally stage, there’s a healthy presence of future technology on display too.
Several manufacturers of both road cars and commercial vehicles are maintaining healthy hydrogen development programmes of both fuel cells and hydrogen combustion engines.
Toyota has programmes for both ICE and fuel cells as part of its ‘multi-pathway’ route to carbon neutrality, with projects covering racing, rallying and light commercial vehicles. It’s also pursuing hydrogen storage methods, with both compressed gas and liquid hydrogen. Two projects appeared at Goodwood.
The new GR010 Hybrid WEC car-based GR LH2 Racing Concept, unveiled at Le Mans in June, was on static display, with its hydrogen-fuelled ICE, while the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hilux prototype was in action as a support vehicle.
Ten prototype pick-ups were built at Toyota’s UK’s Burnaston plant, with five retained for testing and the rest used for demo activities. Each has a 373-mile range, fuelled by compressed hydrogen in three pressure vessels.
Hydrogen capacity is measured by weight, and each vessel contains 2.6kg, giving a total of 7.8kg.Compared with other zero-emission options, (such as an EV battery pack), that’s not much, and it means the Hilux has a high payload and towing capability.
The fuel-cell system uses the main elements of Toyota’s Mirai FCEV saloon, with a polymer electrolyte membrane-type fuel-cell stack (also known as the Proton Exchange Membrane or PEM) made up of 330 fuel cells. The stack is mounted over the front axle, with drive sent to a 180bhp, 221lb ft electric motor-generator on the rear axle.
