Behind The Wheel – Episode 3: Exploring Hydrogen Combustion
I’ve been working 11 years now for Toyota and basically cars have always been in my bloods. To feel the emotion, the passion, especially through motorsports, it’s a it’s a good feeling to have. Building the Garis H2 concept has been one of the most exciting projects that I’ve been working on. It all started with a question. Can we power it in a way that brings carbon neutrality to motorsport? So we took the Garis, a car built for rallying and thought, what could we power it with? And we thought hydrogen. So basically that’s how the concept of the GIRS H2 was born, not as a product but as an experiment to show the future direction. For me, there’s two things that I like about the car. One is the way it drives. So, the drivability. It’s drives super cool. And the second is basically the noise. So, you really keep that deep passionate sound for motorsport. I was like, “Wow.” like, okay, we have accomplished something here where we can keep the motorsport and really get the passion from the fans when they hear it. You know, GR isn’t just about making fast cars. It’s a laboratory for trying new ideas. Hydrogen combustion is one of those bold experiments. So at Toyota, we believe there’s no one path to carbon neutrality. Hydrogen combustion, carbon neutral fuels, battery EVs, it’s all part of the mix. So this project isn’t just about one car or one local project. It’s a global Toyota project involving many stakeholders. So around the world, Toyota is testing different technologies of hydrogen combustion engine for instance in the GR Corolla and also the GRH2 hypercar. So the GR H2 Yaris concept may never hit the public roads but it teaches us a valuable lesson for the future. The whole journey basically started from Marisso Son’s dream. He wanted to keep the thrill of motorsports alive even in a decarbonized future. Hydrogen is his challenge to us. Every lap we drive basically teaches us something.
Gazoo Racing Business Specialist, James Olden, talks about how the European GR Yaris H2 Concept car came to life in the latest of our ‘Behind the Wheel’ series.
This is the third episode of the ‘Behind The Wheel’ series, where Toyota members talk about our technologies, innovations and projects through their personal angle.
