Toyota & Yamaha Pair Up To Create A Fully Hydrogen-Powered V8 Car Engine

Hydrogen is being recognized as a much cleaner alternative fuel that could be the future of various transport industries from air travel to trucking. However, perhaps thanks to the slew of electric-based inventions in the field, it hasn’t quite taken off in cars just yet.  

Two well-known car manufacturing firms, Toyota and Yamaha, are collaborating on a brand new V8 hydrogen engine, which could change the game as we know it. 

Hydrogen has an “innately friendly feel” that makes it “easy to use even without resorting to electronic driving aids,” explains Takeshi Yamada of Yamaha’s Technical Research Development Center, and one of the team who developed the hydrogen engine.

According to him, “everyone who came to test-drive the prototype car would start off somewhat skeptical, but emerged from the car with a big smile on their face at the end.”

This five-liter engine is based on a model that’s currently fitted in a Lexus RC F sports coupé, noted by Interesting Engineering. 

Some modifications have been made to the injectors, cylinder heads, and intake manifold, among others. Now, the new engine boasts 449bhp at 6800 revolutions per minute, and 398lb-ft at 3600rpm.

Creating this engine has “the potential to be carbon-neutral while keeping our passion for the internal combustion engine alive at the same time,” Yamaha Motor president Yoshihiro Hidaka states. 

[via Interesting Engineering and Yamaha, image via Yamaha]