“Tacoma H2-Overlander Concept”: SEMA Build Episode 2 | Toyota
We’re back in North Carolina here this week They got the whole team from California. This will be the first time that
the entire team has seen the truck and we’re ready to work on the SEMA build. Trying to convert a truck into a fully
functional hydrogen powered vehicle. It’s got to be one of the most ambitious projects that we’ve ever undertaken. This vehicle not only has to be fully functional, but it has to look great and it has to carry that SEMA wow factor. And so, we’re working really hard
to make sure all that is achieved. So, the last few weeks, we’ve been starting to make some
headway here with the frame. We’ve got the TRD long
travel suspension installed, Fox shocks. So, we’ve also gotten our rear suspension
parts that were made in Costa Mesa. They’ve been anodized blue here. So, they everything’s all matching our blue theme. We got the rear axle here that we got. This is a prototype. It’s the
first one that’s been made. Taking a vehicle that’s not
meant to be an electric vehicle to turn the key on to get
the thing to start and drive takes a whole lot of effort just to get to that point, just
to even get it to start moving. And it’s the stuff you can’t see. So in the room here, we’ve got
all of our components wired up for low voltage, high voltage, and communications. It’s really just a matter of trying
to get them all to talk independently and then get them all talk concurrently together. So once we’ve got everything working on the bench, then we’ll transplant it to the truck and then I’ll worry about
tidying up the wiring harnesses. So right now we’re ready to test
to make sure the motor spins as we intended it to. So we’re just making sure that
we have the inverter and motor and everything set up correctly. And so once he gets this fired up here, we should be able to see the axles turn here. All right, Matt, it’s moment
of truth for the rear motor. And here we go. Hey, we did it. We have motion. Works, great. When I graduated from
college, I I told my friends, I’m like, man, I’m going to be
designing fuel cell stuff for Toyota. And to be here now and to be doing
it now is a crazy dream come true. I think with any new technology,
any new thing that comes out there is when people see it in their
mind, you get them to see, oh my god, look at the possibilities. It’s not just about, you
know, making something pretty. It’s about, you know, making a
statement about what the truck is. And that is a hydrogen-driven overlander truck. The heritage paint scheme. It captures both where we started, where we began, and where we’ve gone to, and where we’re going. I think the greatest challenge has
been the sheer amount of details that we still have to cover. This vehicle has to be ready to go. We just can’t make it look
good. It also has to work well. The one of the most exciting things,
at least for me and the group is I don’t think we ever worked
on something this public. Kind of keeps you motivated and
knowing that you’re building something for people who are going to
want this when they see it. There’s no compromise. And I think that’s going
to really kind of shock the overlanding community that we’ve built a hydrogen vehicle that
has no compromise for what they need and even has amenities that they
probably never even thought of. A car that makes water. So, the water gets collected in the exhaust, pumped to a spare tank, and then it gets
filtered before it goes out to be used. There’s no denying that we
need another energy solution. That is a requirement. So seeing Toyota put all this
time, money, effort into us being able to do this kind of build and any builds in the future is really incredible. There’s all these amenities that when people
build overlanding vehicles, they add to them. They add extra power. They add bigger alternators. They add spare batteries. You don’t need to do that with this
vehicle. It’s already all built in. You know, you’re getting down to the
end of the project and it’s the details. You know, the devil’s in the
details, and it’s the little things. The more pieces that go on, the
more it makes you want to finish it and make it look good and really make it
that showpiece that we’re all striving for. Today was a big day that we’ve
got all the components in. Today’s the first day that we got
the vehicle down on the ground. I think we were kind of floating off the ground after seeing the tires come on. It’s a surreal experience being able
to see it come together and it’s like, Oh, it’s actually starting to look like something. It’s everything you love about a Tacoma, but make it green. It’s everything you’ve
wanted in an overlanding car, but make it the future. We got over 5 weeks here to
get this Tacoma ready for SEMA. We still got a long way to go and
a really short time to get there.
Follow the TRD engineering team as they race against time, tackling the complex challenge of fitting an entirely new hydrogen powertrain into a vehicle never designed for it. From pioneering a patent-pending water recovery system to coordinating between California and North Carolina teams, watch the obstacles mount as the deadline approaches.
00:00 Truck first look & continuing build
00:34 Making headway on the build
01:07 Wiring the truck
01:23 Motor testing: Moment of truth
01:50 Bringing Fuel Cell dreams to reality
02:09 A truck should make a statement
02:25 What has the greatest challenge been so far?
02:47 Shock the Overland Community
03:04 The need for another energy solution
03:20 Overlanding amenities & approaching the finish line
03:52 Tacoma, but make it green
Check out what’s new and watch more Toyota SEMA videos:
▶Latest videos from Toyota: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_53LXo-UNo&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwVPnQZg9qWBpGP8oHLM1aT_
▶More Toyota SEMA Show videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY2UEdA59Jk&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwUOCtl_IzAzuB063QdnmDPS
▶Watch the “Tacoma H2-Overlander Concept”: SEMA Build Episode 1 | Toyota: https://youtu.be/jj6XBss22Pg
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