Everyone here is talking electric utes, but how about a hydrogen fuel cell Hilux?
A Toyota-led consortium in the United Kingdom is developing a prototype hydrogen-powered version of the one-tonner and while it appears to focus on the rear-drive rather than the four-wheel-drive version Kiwis predominantly choose, the project partly funded by Britain’s government will likely be of interest to Toyota New Zealand, which has also been trialling hydrogen’s potentials with a car linked to the Hilux programme.
Specifically, the drive components used in the Hilux are similar to those found in the second-generation Mirai, Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell car that has been undergoing driving in Auckland with selected partners for most of this year.
The Mirari powertrain consists of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell which is mated to a lithium ion battery, but it’s formatted for two-wheel-drive.
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The second-generation Mirai has three carbon-fibre reinforced-plastic hydrogen storage tanks carrying up to 141 litres or 5.6kg of hydrogen pressured to 700 bar. This feeds into a 330-cell solid polymer electrolyte fuel-cell stack, which generates electricity by combining the stored hydrogen with atmospheric oxygen. A hybrid-sized 1.2kW lithium-ion battery stores excess energy made by the fuel cell, as well as energy recovered from regenerative braking. An electric motor making 134kW and 300Nm drives the rear wheels.
Toyota claims the Mirai has a range of over 640 kilometres but it’s thought the less aerodynamic Hilux is unlikely to offer quite such an impressive figure. The images of the hydrogen Hilux show no differences to the internal-combustion engined model.Toyota says the development of a successful hydrogen transport sector is an essential element in achieving the firm’s goal of multi-technological carbon-neutrality.
Richard Kenworthy, Toyota Motor UK managing director, said: “We see this project as a great opportunity to contribute to the critical path on the road to carbon zero mobility.
“This UK Government funding will enable teams within the consortium to acquire key skills that can then be used to investigate other fuel cell applications.”
News of the Hilux project comes as local media have been speculating as to when the major providers of utilities here might provide their vehicles with electric assist.
The Ford Ranger and the next generation of Mitsubishi Triton are front-runners for plug-in hybrid drivetrains; their respective makers have confirmed these models are designed for that technology. Ford outlined some months ago that the Ranger is designed to take batteries, though not enough to make it set to become a fully-electric product.
Speaking at the national launch event for T6.2 Ranger, in July, Ford’s T6 chief platform engineer Ian Foston, based in Melbourne, said the product lifecycle for Ranger means that some form of electrification is a given and the brand would be relating more about this soon.
VW has also indicated the same process for its Ranger-spun Amarok and confirmed the body-on-frame chassis can accept an electric drivetrain and battery pack.
The next-generation Triton seems likely to come out in 2023. This model will be shared with the next Nissan Navara, as both brands have subsumed in the Alliance also involving Renault. The tie-up with the utes is to save development costs, in the same way that Ford has buddied with Volkswagen and Mazda with Isuzu.
Mitsubishi is taking lead role in Triton’s development. The PHEV is not expected to be available when it launches, but will come on stream at some point after that. Various reports suggest it could be late 2024, or even 2025. Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand has said it has no expectation of seeing a PHEV Triton in 2023.
Read the full article at www.motoringnz.com.
