Hydrogen-powered Toyota GR Yaris debuts with a special livery

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As with most of the major carmakers out there, Toyota also has plans to go all-electric sometime in the future. The big T recently unveiled the all-electric bZ4X SUV which I guess you could say is the first step in its all-electric roadmap. However, it doesn’t wanna let go of internal combustion engines too soon either. Which is also one of the reasons why the company revealed a Corolla hatchback prototype—powered by a hydrogen combustion engine a few months ago. Although the engine emits NOx, it was claimed that there are no CO2 and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions. Now though, it’s time for the highly-acclaimed GR Yaris hot hatch to drink some hydrogen and see if it still remains just as hot—literal or otherwise.

In fact, the aforementioned Corolla Sport prototype borrowed the 1.6-litre (1,618 cc) 3-cylinder turbocharged unit from the GR Yaris, which means the engine has already tasted hydrogen, and apparently likes it very much. The hydrogen-powered experimental Corolla has been competing in the Super Taikyu race series in Japan since May this year under the Rookie Racing arm of Toyota Gazoo Racing where the team is testing the hydrogen combustion engine under torturous environments of motorsport. This hydrogen-powered GR Yaris might also be subjected to similar harsh testing.

We’ve taken the first step to compete with and develop our hydrogen-powered engine with the mindset of taking on the challenge. I imagine things will look a little different 10 years from now, and I hope people will look back and see how we took on the challenge with positivity and enjoyed every moment of it. – Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor Corporation

The hydrogen fuel, fuel tanks and refueling process of these experimental vehicles are the same as found in the Mirai—Toyota’s commercially available flagship fuel cell electric vehicle. However, whilst the Mirai employs chemical reaction in the fuel cells to generate energy, the experimental GR Yaris features the same G16E-GTS 1.6-litre 3-cylinder turbocharged engine that is found in the commercially available GR Yaris, but with a modified fuel supply and injection system for use with hydrogen as fuel.