Toyota Says This Hydrogen Tacoma Can Rescue Lifeless EVs In The Wild

• Toyota reveals one-off Tacoma-based hydrogen fuel-cell overlanding automobile.
• It borrows the fuel-cell from the second-generation Mirai and captures the ensuing water vapor for different makes use of.
• Two electrical motors give it 547 horsepower and different modifications make it completely fitted to going off-road.

Toyota doesn’t intend to surrender on the hydrogen gasoline cell as a way to propel passenger autos, which it hopes to supply on a wider scale in its future, presumably even powering the subsequent Corolla. The producer is investigating using this know-how to energy all forms of autos, and the newest is an off-roader referred to as the Tacoma H2 Overlander idea. (Get it? H2O?)

It’s powered by two electrical motors, which collectively produce 547 horsepower, making it faster than any combustion Tacoma you should purchase at present. As a substitute of lugging round a 1,000-pound battery pack, this FCEV examine solely wants a 24.9-kilowatt-hour pack (roughly one-quarter of the dimensions of a typical electrical truck battery), as it may produce its personal energy on the go.

Toyota boasts that it may “cost your buddy’s EV within the nice outside,” which might be true. However when you get out of stated wilderness, a type of autos will nonetheless have a better time discovering an influence supply. At any fee, this does present how Toyota is constant to work on fascinating purposes for next-generation powertrains, together with hydrogen and EVs.

With this Tacoma, this feat is feasible by means of using a second-generation fuel-cell stack borrowed from the Mirai and three pressurized hydrogen tanks. The hydrogen passes by means of the gasoline cell, making electrical energy, which is then used to energy the automobile and replenish the battery pack. As with every FCEV, the one byproduct is water vapor, which, on this idea, is captured for different makes use of. The water isn’t match for consuming, however it may be used for laundry or showering, in accordance with Toyota.

The idea doesn’t simply produce energy for itself. It may provide as much as 15 kilowatts of energy, which may very well be used to cost one other EVbut additionally energy home equipment and even a complete home. This feels like an excellent automobile to be dispatched to assist stranded off-road EVs. It has the gear essential to traverse powerful terrain (locking differentials, lifted suspension and all-terrain tires), and as soon as it reaches the automobile that has run out of cost, it might provide the juice wanted to get it shifting once more.

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Supply: Toyota

It was conceived and constructed within the U.S. on the identical TNGA-F body-on-frame platform that underpins the usual Tacoma, however with modified axles and a customized electrical system. All the additional parts have been 3D-printed and Toyota says it was created in “only a few months.”

The producer rushed to get it completed as a result of it’s set to debut on the 2025 SEMA Present, which kicks off tomorrow in Las Vegas, the place it is meant as a poster automobile for Toyota’s “dedication to innovation throughout each powertrain—gasoline inner combustion (ICE), hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), battery electrical (BEV), and gasoline cell electrical (FCEV).”