Toyota has just done something that hasn’t been seen before, until now: a liquid hydrogen-powered car developed by Toyota completed the NAPAC Fuji SUPER TEC 24 Hours Race, the second round of the 2023 ENEOS Super Taikyu Series.
This feat of competing in a liquid hydrogen-fueled car was itself a world-first undertaking. Despite debuting in the series’ most grueling event, the 24-hour race, Toyota’s team completed 358 laps of Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture, a distance equaling 1,634 km.
From high-speed development, to continuous trail and errors where every day brought its own share of challenges, Toyota was impressively able to accomplish this feat in an astounding 18 months, only.
Toyota Times reports from the genba, where we closely followed the development journey.
“Unless we start now, the future won’t change”
Let’s wind the clock back a year to the Super Taikyu Fuji 24 Hours in June 2022.
“We still haven’t been able to get it running. We have a long way to go, but the team is motivated and working hard, knowing that unless we start now, the future won’t change.”
This is how GR Vehicle Development Division General Manager Tomoya Takahashi (now GAZOO Racing Company President) described the state of development on the liquid hydrogen-fueled car, which began at the start of 2022.
Only a year after the H2 Corolla first raced on gaseous hydrogen, Toyota was already taking the next step toward decarbonization through motorsports.
Liquid hydrogen’s main advantage is its longer range.
The fuel’s energy density (energy per unit volume) is about 1.7 times that of gaseous hydrogen, allowing the car to drive that much further.
Unlike gaseous hydrogen, liquid does not require high pressurization, allowing greater freedom in tank design* and potentially opening up more space in the rear seat.
*Tanks must be cylindrical to distribute force evenly when high pressurization is required,
On the other hand, maintaining the ultralow temperature of -253°C at which hydrogen liquefies is difficult.
While the existing engine could be used as-is, the tank had to be specially developed with outstanding insulation to keep the hydrogen fuel in its liquid state.
Several new parts were also needed, including a booster pump to deliver the fuel, a vaporizer to heat the fuel and turn it into gas, and a pressure chamber to supply hydrogen to match the driver’s pedal input.
While many parts were still in being developed from scratch, the team’s engineers unveiled a mock-up version of the liquid hydrogen system for the press.
The reasoning was explained by Assistant Manager Ryosuke Yamamoto (GR Vehicle Development Division), who was involved in the development process.
“Though we were already collaborating with many suppliers, we wanted to get more partners on board to refine the technology together and turn it into something significant. We hoped more people would see this and step up to help.”
Toyota’s “unfathomable” specs
On the flip side, this effort reveals the difficulty of finding collaborators.
And little wonder—the only other examples of liquid hydrogen-fueled mobility were rockets.
Although the team found manufacturers who make large-scale hydrogen tanks, virtually no one was developing compact tanks fit for passenger cars.
Yamamoto and his fellow developers scoured the country in search of someone with the advanced technical capabilities to build their tank—the key to the project’s success—with the speed required for racing.
During this search, they were introduced to Shinko Industries from Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
While the company’s strengths lie in civil engineering, construction, and other large-scale projects, the team selected Shinko for its highly skilled master welders.
The double-shell vacuum-insulation tank had to fit snugly into its allotted space, while also allowing for the hydrogen inlet/outlet nozzle to be installed. Being a single bespoke item, all welding had to be done by hand.
Even with Shinko’s welding prowess, this proved a daunting task. Keiji Kawano, Deputy General Manager of Shinko Plant Service*, explains.
*A Shinko Industries subsidiary that also developed and manufactured the vaporizer for the liquid hydrogen vehicle.
“We had never worked with an automaker before. Normally, we deal with large equipment such as cranes and civil engineering projects. Rather than making dozens of the same items, we are in the business of producing one-off custom pieces. For us, Toyota’s specifications required an unfathomable level of precision.”
The workmanship had to be accurate down to tenths of a millimeter. Keeping within these specs while factoring in the distortion caused by welding proved a Herculean task.
Completing half a year’s work in three months
There was an added difficulty: the tank gave little leeway for design modifications.
With Toyota aiming to be race-ready in just a year, the “super-speed” development involved numerous parts running in parallel, many of which would be impacted by changes in the tank design.
Things were so tight that even slight tweaks to the nozzle angle would affect other piping.
Given the hurdles involved, why was Shinko so keen to take on this development challenge?
“We saw for ourselves Toyota’s commitment to the future of Japan,” says Kawano. “Being part of that was the biggest motivation.”
“We wanted to prove that a car equipped with the tank we made could race safely before crowds of spectators. We threw everything we had into this project, believing in a future where cars running on liquid hydrogen are part of everyday life.”
For some of the tank’s components, such as flanges and nozzles, fell short of Toyota’s exacting requirements, even if they met Japan Industrial Standards (JIS).
Such parts were fabricated from scratch, drawing on the combined resources of the Shinko Group to achieve ultra-short turnaround times and high-precision finish.
When the situation called for specialized skills, experienced veterans were called in to the frontlines to join the team.
Alongside manufacturing, 25 members handled areas such as design and obtaining approval. Thanks to this Shinko-wide effort, which included weekend and holiday shifts, work that would normally be expected to take six months was completed in just three.
“Seeing the finished piece was a real thrill,” recalls Yamamoto. “It had an aura beyond anything in my drawings. I’m full of gratitude for everything Shinko achieved despite the difficulties of maintaining precision when crafting by hand.”
Vehicle fire threatens to end development
The tank built by Shinko Industries was first installed in a car in October 2022. With the liquid hydrogen system thoroughly tested for function and safety, the car was ready to drive within the month.
In November, the team made a successful first run at Fuji Speedway. Sights were set on the season opener at Suzuka in March 2023 as the car’s racing debut.
Yet failure is part and parcel of stepping into the unknown. Despite previously running trouble-free, time and again, the car would malfunction when conditions changed. Often, the causes could not be pinned down on the spot.
Though each day brought its fair share of problems, such issues were ironed out at the genba, and the project seemed to be making steady progress.
However, on March 8, just ten days out from the big race, a major incident occurred.
During a test run at the track, a fire ignited in the engine bay. Fortunately, none of the drivers or crew were injured, but damage to the vehicle forced the team to pull out of the season opener.
A missed race was the least of the team’s worries. “Such extreme attempts are not something we are allowed to do every day,” says Project General Manager Naoaki Ito, who oversees the hydrogen engine project. “Failure usually means you’re out of it completely.”
The development team feared that if the fire came to dominate the narrative, the project might well be terminated.
And yet, the work carried on. A week later, when announcing the team’s withdrawal from the race, both President Koji Sato and Chairman Akio Toyoda clarified their intention to forge ahead with development.
“This car competes in the ST-Q class, a category set up with the goal of developing technology that will play a part in creating our future mobility society. The purpose of such testing is to identify issues, and the key is figuring out how to build on the issues that emerge. We plan to keep moving forward with continuous improvement.” (President Sato)
“We undertook this effort to help create a hydrogen society. As we’ve said from the outset, the future will be shaped by acting with purpose and passion. Even while the engineers were saying it couldn’t be done, they’ve managed to develop the technology in an agile way while remaining competitive and keeping an eye on what’s going on around us. As a driver myself, I want people to see hydrogen not as a danger but as our future.” (Akio)
With the backing of Toyota’s leaders, the developers set their sights on the 24-hour race, the same event where the original H2 Corolla made its debut in 2021.
Improvement, not restoration
The team’s job was made harder by the fact that every part was a one-of-a-kind item. They now had two and a half months to order these parts and rebuild the vehicle from the “body-in-white” stage, meaning a bare skeleton without the engine, seats, or other components.
While such a schedule would normally have been impossible, the developers seized their second chance and poured all their efforts into crafting a new car.
What’s more, rather than simply restoring the vehicle to its former condition, they spent the time making improvements.
To prevent another fire, the hydrogen piping was shifted away from high-temperature areas in the engine, and mechanical fixes were implemented to ensure the joints did not loosen.
Additional safety measures included a cover to conduct hydrogen to the detector in case of a leak.
The team also managed to trim 50 of the roughly 300 kg that the vehicle had gained in switching from hydrogen gas, mainly by lightening the tank.
The lap times at Fuji Speedway even eclipsed those set by the original H2 Corolla in its first race.
Akio, aka Morizo, gave the slimmed-down vehicle a nod of approval after taking a spin, saying, “It felt much better than the first time. They made great progress in reducing weight, and I was able to have a proper dialogue with the car.”
24-hour battle brings progress beyond the car
Between the testing stage and the race itself, the biggest headache for the development team was the pump that draws liquid hydrogen from the tank.
Described by Project General Manager Ito as “our greatest technical challenge in liquid hydrogen right now,” the components simply lacked the strength and reliability to function in the extreme -253°C environment for 24 hours.
That is why, to ensure safety during the race, the team planned for two pump changes, once at night and once in the morning, to preemptively replace the part before it failed.
This is, however, a formidable task. The hydrogen first needs to be drained and substituted with safe nitrogen before a new pump can be installed. Then it is a matter of extracting the nitrogen, injecting hydrogen gas, and finally refilling with liquid hydrogen.
The first pump replacement took four hours.
Ahead of the second replacement early the next morning, the development team received a visit from driver Morizo. Upon hearing from Ito that the first changeover had taken four hours, he grinned and said, “So let’s make the next one three hours.”
When Ito asked for a compromise of three and a half, Morizo tried to fire him up with some tough love: “You don’t get to set your own limits!”
In fact, the 3.5-hour goal was not simply about meeting Morizo halfway. This was the minimum time estimated by the team’s mechanics and engineers based on repeated practice.
But the “pep talk” did the trick, spurring team members to focus their energies on the critical task. Before three hours were up, the engine roared to life again, and the pits erupted in applause.
The pump replacement was carried out not by professional race mechanics, but employees from Toyota’s development genba. The intense battleground of a 24-hour race served to hone not only the team’s car but also its people, sparking unprecedented progress.
A growing circle of like-minded partners
The 24-hour race forged Toyota’s car and crew alike. With no major trouble to force unplanned pitstops, the team completed 358 laps for a total of 1,634 km.
By a curious coincidence, this was the same number of laps as in the car’s first 24-hour race using hydrogen gas. It felt like fate, bringing the team full circle with the discovery of new possibilities for hydrogen.
Reflecting on the 24-hour battle, Assistant Manager Yamamoto commented, “When starting out, we weren’t even able to pump a single drop, but with the help from our partners, we eventually got the car running. Despite all the setbacks, we somehow managed to come this far.”
Speaking before the race, Akio had the following words for his teammates.
“Carbon neutrality is the challenge of our time. Our hydrogen-engine GR Corolla is back to race for another season as we seek to expand future options through purposeful passion and action. Our number of like-minded partners has grown with each attempt to develop the car through Super Taikyu. Now, with the switch to liquid fuel, the list is longer than ever. I hope that, with each extra lap, each additional second this car spends on the track, we keep pushing the door open to a new future.”
In the leadup to this race, Toyota also announced joint research with Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo, and Waseda University into superconducting motor technology for liquid hydrogen pumps.
Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which electrical resistance vanishes at ultralow temperatures. If this can be applied to the pumps that feed liquid hydrogen at -253°C, the pumps and the motors that drive them could be made smaller and lighter.
Taking up new challenges draws in new partners. As their ranks grow, a new, unseen future unfolds before us, and the circle of action sparked by purpose and passion builds into a powerful movement.
