Hydrogen powered Toyota GR Yaris debuts in Europe.
Toyota used the Ypres Rally to demonstrate its GR Yaris H2 outside of Japan for the first time.
When we last talked about Toyota’s hydrogen-powered GR Yaris, it kicked off an extensive discussion in the forums about the pros and cons of hydrogen fuel in general.
Whether you think it a pointless, inefficient sideshow or a nailed-on certainty when it comes to the future of internal combustion, Toyota is still quite keen on the idea (naturally it is also keen on several other ideas, too) and has underlined that fact by demonstrating the car on public roads outside Japan for the first time.
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And we’re not talking a trundle round an industrial estate, either. Oh no. The GR Yaris H2 featured in none other than the ninth round of the WRC in Ypres.
Okay, so it was only on a single stage, and the car ran ahead of the safety car before the real action kicked off – but still, it was an enthusiastic squirt down a 15km course of ‘extremely narrow farm roads that ran along fields and between houses’. It doesn’t get anymore ‘real-world’ than that.
Moreover, it was driven by none other than Akio Toyoda in his ‘Morizo’ chief test driver guise. And Toyota’s guv’nor can’t sit in a GR Yaris without driving it enthusiastically – especially when he’s got four-time WRC champion Juha Kankkunen doing the pace notes.
In case you’d forgotten, the H2 is said to be more or less identical to the standard GR, with only a strengthened block and modified injection system distinguishing the three-cylinder motor from its petrol-chewing equivalent.
Of course, the appearance of the car in Belgium is unlikely to have PHers opting for a different side of the fence in the ongoing debate about hydrogen fuel – but for what it’s worth, there does seem to be an ongoing correlation between Toyoda’s proximity to a project and Toyota’s in-house enthusiasm for it going forward.
And while he was quick to highlight the presence of a Mirai at the event (the manufacturer’s current hydrogen fuel-cell car), it’s readily apparent that the CEO is still very keen on the idea of conventional combustion engines powered by unconventional means.
Juha Kankkunen, WRC champion is predictably partial to the idea, too:
The hydrogen engine put out solid torque, making it no different from a gasoline engine.
“Because they emit zero CO2, I believe hydrogen engines will become one of the options for achieving carbon neutrality not only in the world of motorsports but also in the world of everyday cars.”
It’s worth noting that Toyota still hasn’t put a figure next to that ‘solid torque’, and has so far declined to relate performance figures for the H2 either. The concept remains a work in progress, as do the firm’s other research programmes – including running a modified Corolla in Japan’s Super Taikyu race series.
But, as Toyoda stated for the record when the car was revealed last year, the real appeal of hydrogen-based fuelling is the delivery of “almost zero emissions while retaining the acoustic and sensory sensations typical for combustion engines.” Extensive production-based hurdles aside, that sentiment still sounds pretty good to us.
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Hydrogen-powered GR Yaris debuts in Europe, August 22, 2022
