The Toyota FCHV is a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

fuel cell vehicle A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate el ...

development programme of the

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

, which was leased to a limited number of drivers in the United States and Japan beginning in 2002. The Toyota FCHV and Honda FCX, which began leasing on 2 December 2002, became the world's first government-certified commercial hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Its first commercial fuel cell vehicle was developed from the FCHV-4, which was adapted from the

Toyota Highlander The Toyota Highlander, also known as the , is a mid-size crossover SUV with three-row seating produced by Toyota since 2000. Announced in April 2000 at the New York International Auto Show and arriving in late 2000 in Japan and January 2001 ...

body. "FCHV" stands for "Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle". A number of

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

s have been produced, up to the latest FCHV-adv ("advanced").

History

There are six generations of FCHVs for testing. The FCHV-1, introduced in 1996, was Toyota's first fuel cell vehicle, based on the

Toyota RAV4 The is a compact crossover SUV produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is known for starting the wave of compact crossovers. The RAV4 is one of the best-selling SUVs of all time. By February 2020, a total of 10 million RAV4 ...

and equipped with a hydrogen-absorbing alloy storage unit. The FCHV-2, introduced in 1997, was equipped with a reformer to extract hydrogen from methanol. FCHV-3, 4, and 5, introduced in 2001, were based on the

, and FCHV-3 and 4 were capable of generating four times more power than FCHV-1. The FCHV-4 was the first fuel cell vehicle to be tested on public roads in Japan, and driving tests continued until 2004. The Clean Hydrocarbon Fuel (CHF) reformer of the FCHV-5 was equipped with a newly developed catalyst and heat exchanger to improve acceleration and fuel economy. As of 2008 the FCHV-adv was available for lease in Japan. The use of the vehicles by government ministries and companies is intended to provide detailed development feedback on the FCHV performance under varied driving conditions. In 2007 a FCHV was driven between

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

and

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

on a single tank of hydrogen, proving that a hydrogen vehicle could compete with conventional vehicles for range. In August 2009, Toyota USA announced an estimated FCHV-adv range of from a tank of hydrogen, based on a test trip in "real-world" conditions between Torrance and

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

FCHV system

The FCHV designs are based on the first generation Highlander SUV, although a

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

version is also in development. The powertrain consists of a 90 kW fuel cell supplied from onboard compressed

hydrogen tank A hydrogen infrastructure is the infrastructure of points of hydrogen production, truck and pipeline transport, and hydrogen stations for the distribution and sale of hydrogen fuel, and thus a crucial prerequisite before a successful commerciali ...

s, and a

nickel–metal hydride battery A nickel–metal hydride battery (NiMH or Ni–MH) is a type of rechargeable battery. The chemical reaction at the positive electrode is similar to that of the nickel–cadmium cell (NiCd), with both using nickel oxide hydroxide (NiOOH). Ho ...

in parallel. Battery and fuel cell can provide power to the 90 kW driving

motors An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

either singly or together. The mechanism is very similar to the

Hybrid Synergy Drive Hybrid Synergy Drive system (HSD), also known as Toyota Hybrid System II, is the brand name of Toyota Motor Corporation for the hybrid car drive train technology used in vehicles with the Toyota and Lexus marques. First introduced on the Toyota ...

in the Toyota

Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...

and

Toyota Auris The is a compact car derived from the Corolla, manufactured and sold by Toyota. Introduced in 2006, the first generation three/five-door hatchback shared the platform with the E150 series Corolla, while the second generation five-door hatchb ...

HSD but with the

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

replacing the

petrol Gasoline (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...

, thus minimising

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

at point of use. At low speeds the FCHV can run on battery alone, with a range of about . For high performance, such as when accelerating from rest, the fuel cell and battery supply power in tandem. The battery can also charge by

regenerative braking Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy or potential energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. Typically, regenerativ ...

, improving overall efficiency.

Hydrogen storage

The 700

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

(10000

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

)

s holds 156 liters - enough fuel for a range of on the Japanese 10-15 test cycle and on the Japanese JC08 test cycle. Test vehicles on the Japanese 10-15 test cycle average with a top speed of . Vehicles on the JC08 test cycle average and a top speed of .

Models

FCHV-1

FCHV-2

FCHV-3

FCHV-4

FCHV-5

FCHV-adv

FCHV-BUS

The Toyota FCHV-BUS is a

fuel cell bus A fuel cell bus is a bus that uses a hydrogen fuel cell as its power source for Electric motor, electrically driven wheels, sometimes augmented in a Hybrid power, hybrid fashion with batteries or a supercapacitor. The only emission from the bus is ...

based on the

Hino Blue Ribbon City The Hino Blue Ribbon (kana:日野・ブルーリボン) is a heavy-duty single-decker bus produced by Hino Motors through the J-Bus joint-venture. The range is primarily available as city bus and tourist coach. It is built by J-Bus as either a ...

(KL-HU2PMEE) low-floor bus. *90 kW PEFC Fuel cell stack: twice *Motor: AC synchronous 80 kW twice *Hydrogen tank: Compressed hydrogen gas 35 MPa / 150 liter, five (version 2002) or seven (version 2005) *Passenger capacity: 63 (included 22 seats) FCHV-BUS demonstrated at

Toei Bus The is a bus service operated by the Bus Service Division, the . It is also called . The bureau mainly operates bus routes in the special wards of Tokyo, as well as those in the city of Ōme in the western Tama Area. It creates a virtual mo ...

(August 2003 - December 2004) and

Expo 2005 Expo 2005 was a world expo held for 185 days between Friday, March 25 and Sunday, September 25, 2005, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, east of the city of Nagoya. Japan has also hosted Expo '70 Osaka (World Expo), Expo '75 Okinawa (Specialised Expo) ...

. After Expo 2005, some were lent to bus fleet operators, and also demonstrated in fuel cell events. *

Chita Noriai , also called Chita Bus, is a bus company in the Meitetsu Group, based in Handa, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Bus Lines Airport bus *From Chūbu Centrair International Airport **For Kariya and Chiryū **For Okazaki **For Anjō **For Tokoname ...

(March 2006 - December 2009) as route bus in Chubu International Airport *

Chubu International Airport is an international airport on an artificial island (which also houses the ) in Ise Bay, Tokoname, Tokoname City in Aichi Prefecture, south of Nagoya in central Japan. The airport covers about 470 hectares (1,161 acres) of land and has one ...

(since July 2006) as ramp bus *

Meitetsu Bus is a bus company in the Meitetsu Group. Bus Lines Highway Buses *Chuo Highway Bus **Meitetsu BC - Shinjuku **Meitetsu BC - Iida **Meitetsu BC - Ina, Komagane, Minowa **Meitetsu BC - Matsumoto **Meitetsu BC - Nagano **Meitetsu BC - ...

(since October 2010) as route bus in

Toyota City, Aichi , formerly known as Koromo, is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 426,162 and a population density of 464 people per km2. The total area was . It is located about 50 minutes from Nagoya by way of the Mei ...

*Airport Transport Service (since December 2010) as airport shuttle bus for Tokyo International Airport

FC Bus

The FC Bus uses the Toyota Fuel Cell System (TFCS) in a bus, based on experience with Hino on the

Hino Blue Ribbon The Hino Blue Ribbon (kana:日野・ブルーリボン) is a heavy-duty single-decker bus produced by Hino Motors through the J-Bus joint-venture. The range is primarily available as city bus and tourist coach. It is built by J-Bus as either ...

bus. In 2015, the bus was lent to

for free, as a demonstration that fuel cell buses were practical. It was used on the

Toyota City , formerly known as Koromo, is a Cities of Japan, city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 426,162 and a population density of 464 people per km2. The total area was . It is located about 50 minutes from Nagoya ...

Community Bus ''Oiden Bus Toyota East Circle Line'' (Section：

Toyotashi Station file:Meitetsu-Mikawa-line-Toyotashi-station-platform-20150503-162634.jpg, 270px, Platforms is a junction train station, railway station in the city of Toyota, Aichi, Japan, operated by Nagoya Railroad, Meitetsu. Lines Toyotashi Station is serve ...

↔ Mikawa-Toyota Station). In September on 2015, the bus started running ''Toyota Oiden Bus Fujioka・Toyota Line'' (Section：

↔ Fujioka Elementary School). Toyota planned to start sales in 2017 and to have 100 units in Tokyo in time for the 2020 Olympics. The bus was delivered to

on lease contract.

SORA

The Toyota SORA bus will be made from 2018. The name "SORA" stands for Sky, Ocean, River, Air, which is the water cycle. It includes a Toyota Fuel Cell System (TFCS) and a collision warning system. It has a capacity of up to 79 people. The seats can also stow automatically when not in use. It also uses LED lights to communicate with other buses and travel in convoys to conserve energy. They can also be used as an emergency power source, having up to .

Project Portal trucks

Toyota started testing two Mirai fuel cells (114 kW each) in a converted

Kenworth T680 The Kenworth T600 is a model line of conventional-cab trucks that were produced by the American truck manufacturer Kenworth from 1984 to 2007. Distinguished by its aerodynamic sloped hood, the T600 was a Class 8 truck, typically sold in semitract ...

electric Class 8

semi-trailer truck A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called ...

in the

Port of Los Angeles The Port of Los Angeles is a seaport managed by the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a unit of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles. It occupies of land and water with of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. Promoted as "Amer ...

in April 2017 as part of 'Project Portal', doing

drayage Drayage is the transportation of shipping containers by truck to its final destination. Drayage is often part of a longer overall move, such as from a ship to a warehouse. Some research defines it specifically as "a truck pickup from or delive ...

for Toyota. The truck has two motors for a combined and of torque, a 200 kW 12 kWh battery, and a fixed

gear ratio A gear train or gear set is a machine element of a mechanical system formed by mounting two or more gears on a frame such that the teeth of the gears engage. Gear teeth are designed to ensure the Pitch circle diameter (gears), pitch circles of e ...

of 15.5:1. It has a range of determined by the size of the hydrogen tanks. It accelerates (empty) from in 7 seconds. The motors are mainly powered by the fuel cells rather than from the small battery. Toyota added a

terminal tractor A terminal tractor, known in the United States as a shag truck, shunt truck, spotter truck, spotting tractor, yard truck, yard shifter, yard dog, yard goat, yard horse, yard mule, yard jockey, yard spotter, hostler, or mule, is a kind of semi-t ...

to the project in 2019. The project was updated with a truck in 2020.

Cultural impact

Prophets of Science Fiction

The FCHV is featured in the

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

episode of the

Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manu ...

program ''

Prophets of Science Fiction ''Prophets of Science Fiction'' is an American documentary television series produced and hosted by Ridley Scott for the Science Channel. The program premiered on . The series covers the life and work of leading science fiction authors of the la ...

''. Some measure of credit is given to Jules Verne in the episode, for helping to inspire the idea.

References

External links

Putting the Green in Our Machine. Toyota USA.Fuel Cell Vehicle. Toyota Global
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toyota Fchv FCHV Hydrogen cars Fuel cell vehicles Fuel cell buses