“Tacoma H2 Overlander”: SEMA Build Episode 1 | Toyota
So, we’re out here at the
TRD office in North Carolina at the chassis engineering building where we do all the chassis engineering for the NASCAR vehicles and vehicle simulation. I just got a call from Toyota R&D asking if we would be willing
to build a vehicle for SEMA that is hydrogen powered using
the Toyota fuel cell technology. Really trying to keep that theme
with TRD and its off-road heritage and what we’ve done with desert
racing and trying to incorporate that with a whole new powertrain technology. Once we really got into our concepts and
our renders and what we wanted to do, what we really wanted was kind
of a desert style overlander. So, we will be removing the entire
powertrain out of a Tacoma TRD Pro and replacing it with a hydrogen fuel cell, batteries, electric motors, and hydrogen tanks. All right. So for our concept, we’re going to put a Gen 2 Toyota
Mirai fuel cell stack inside of it. Total output on the system
about 280kW, 15kW power takeoff, which is enough to power your home. And we’re really excited about the last part is we’re going to have an
exhaust water recovery system, which will be a great camping feature that is utilizing the byproduct
of the fuel cell system. All right, so for the front suspension, we’re going to go with a
long travel suspension kit that utilizes components from the Toyota Tundra. And then for the rear, we’re going to use our TRD developed
billet 5 link suspension kit that we developed for the Tundra, but it also will fit the Tacoma. You know, in the overlanding space, which is what this vehicle is really aimed at, I don’t know you could pick a
better vehicle than a Tacoma. It’s loved by enthusiasts and it has great bones. The body architecture, all that
is really, really well suited for what we’re trying to accomplish
with this hydrogen build. It’s all hands on deck utilizing our chassis design
team here in North Carolina and then our group in Costa Mesa
which is focused on the hydrogen is really working on the powertrain. So it’s a lot of parallel paths to make this work. We’re here at Toyota Racing
Development headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. We’re going to be reviewing with the
emerging technologies team here today with the TRD Pro Tacoma on where we can put the components
for this upcoming build. All right, let’s take a look. Let’s see if we can get a fuel
cell stack underneath here. It’s probably easier to talk
about what we’re going to keep versus what we’re going to get rid of. We’ll have the.. we’ll keep the relay box here. Relay box here. ABS. Let’s try to use this radiator again, since it’s a hybrid, it’s got enough cooling to probably do both the inverter and the engine. Kind of a first that we’re not
just changing the powertrain, but we’re changing the fuel, too. So, it’s not just switching a gasoline
engine with another gasoline engine. This is a completely different system. This has got the GFC topper, so at
least we know they make one that fits. But we’ll have the platform with a tent on it. I like to get something that kind
of fits in this body line here, but like a swing out, something we can put water tanks on there. And then we’ll just do some
custom over flares here. And then other than that, the
body should stay pretty stock. Hey Chris, what do you got for me? We got the scans of the ARB recovery boards. I like how they fit. They’re a little bit bigger
than the other ones we used. Just looks a little bit more rugged. On the rear panel, I ended up putting
this molly panel like we discussed and just threw some kit on there to make it
look like it was prepped and ready to go. And you got the rear swing out bumper. It looks good with the TRD H2 logo. That looks really awesome, too. We’ve got the TRD suspension kit on
there that we’ve got anodized blue. This looks great, man. I think this is it. This is the way we go. From this point forward, the next
thing is to put it back together. Torn it apart. We’ve stripped everything off. We have our parts designed. It’s time to start putting it back together. Today’s a big day for us.
We’ve got most of our parts in and we’re ready to start assembling everything. So, we’re going to start with uh
welding together some cross braces and welding in the brackets for
those into the frame of the vehicle. So, we’ll get those welded
in and then once we do that, we’ll have to cut this crossmember here. We’ve got some 3D printed parts
to help guide us on where to cut, how to cut, so everything fits in nicely. So right now we’re just looking at the CAD model. The fuel cell powertrain is
is here where the engine is. So the tanks, the battery, the
rear motor and differential here. And then the the front motor and gearbox is here. So we’ve got our first piece installed here. This is also the first one to start. And this will set the spacing for
everything going down from there on out. So our project is very unique. It’s clean energy. It’s clean water. Be able to leave no trace
like Overland likes to say. You know, there’s no trash.
You pick up your trash. You don’t want anything left over. Well, we’re doing that with pollution, too. Sometimes like when you’re
too close to some things, you don’t really realize the
magnitude of of how big project is. Toyota’s the best car company in the world. To see that they are pushing this technology and that they are vested
into it, it’s a big thing. So, this is the main power for the stack. And so right now we’re trying to make sure
that we can make the OE connectors fit. So a lot of the components
that we fitted and we put in, they need brackets. They need connection points. They need things that are actually viable
to live and stay inside the Tacoma. The feature I’m most excited about is the 15kW of AC power that we can provide. Some of our competitors
provide a lower amount of power that you can use to recharge EVs or
power your microwave or crockpot. We can actually power an entire house. That’s pretty exciting. And you can do it
on clean energy with renewable hydrogen. I hope the overland community
can see that this vehicle is just as capable as a Tacoma or even more because of all the added suspension components and the power that this is going to produce. You know, SEMA is always about, you
know, people bringing their best. You know, Toyota’s always been about
bringing great vehicles to SEMA. We’re really excited about bringing this one in terms of what we think overlanding looks like with something that’s a zero emission
vehicle and has the ability to really kind of change the way that
people think about overlanding. Time is our greatest challenge. What can we do in 8 months to be prepared for SEMA with a fully integrated vehicle
that used to run on gasoline and now it runs on hydrogen.
The TRD engineering team takes on one of their most ambitious challenges yet with the H2-Overlander Concept, transforming a turbocharged hybrid Tacoma into a hydrogen-powered trail warrior. With near-silent power and a revolutionary water recovery system, this overlanding machine proves clean energy can conquer the wilderness while leaving only water in its wake.
00:00 Hydrogen Fuel Cell in a Tacoma for 2025 SEMA
00:50 Fleshing out the concept
01:22 Designing the Tacoma in the Overlanding space
01:51 Meeting with the Emerging Technologies Team
02:55 Scans of the vehicle & next steps
03:38 The assembly of the Tacoma H2 Overlander
04:25 How unique is this project?
04:51 Fitting and Connecting the Parts
05:07 What is the most exciting feature?
05:36 What is SEMA about?
05:56 Time as the greatest challenge
Check out what’s new and watch more Toyota SEMA videos:
▶Latest videos from Toyota: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY2UEdA59Jk&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwVPnQZg9qWBpGP8oHLM1aT_
▶More Toyota SEMA Show videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmZq_5EPEKg&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwUOCtl_IzAzuB063QdnmDPS
▶Watch the “Tacoma X-Runner Concept”: SEMA Build Episode 1 | Toyota: https://youtu.be/WtU0QWxXYik
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