TU Delft students break Toyota hydrogen car record: driving 1196 km on hydrogen in 36 hours.
TU Delft students have traveled 1196 kilometers in a hydrogen-electric car on a single tank charge. This breaks a previous record set by car manufacturer Toyota. The ride lasted 36 hours.
On 5 and 6 July, the team from Delft drove their Eco-Runner XI for 36 consecutive hours on a cycling track in Helmond. The covered distance of 1196 kilometers is considerably greater than the 1003 kilometers achieved in May by Toyota with the latest hydrogen car Mirai: a car that is simply for sale. The car manufacturer presented this as a distance record for hydrogen-electric cars and the TU Delft student team set out to break it at the end of June.
The record attempt started on Monday, July 5 at 9:30 am in the pouring rain. The car soon had to stop due to bad weather conditions. After that, baffles were placed around the wheels, after which the ride could be continued without any problems. According to the team, the record attempt went almost flawlessly and Toyota’s record was broken on Tuesday afternoon. The team continued to drive until 21:30 in the evening, until the tank was completely empty. Seven different drivers took part in the ride.
With their campaign, the students want to show the possibilities of driving on hydrogen. The Eco-Runner XI has a tank capacity of 450 grams. That is more than twelve times less than the Toyota Mirai, which covered 1003 km with 5.6 kg of hydrogen. However, at 1,900 kg, the Mirai is much heavier than the student team’s experimental car, which weighs 95 kg.
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Delft students break Toyota’s record: driving 1196 kilometers on hydrogen, 09-07-21