ABM_1 - Flipbook - Page 42
FEATURE
HYDROGEN COMBUSTION
throughout the lifecycle of the engine.
The car-buying public demands reliability
and ease of maintenance, and hydrogen
combustion engines simply are not
ready to be left untouched for dozens
of thousands of miles, save for the
occasional oil change.
Aoki says: “As of today, maintenance
can be very different. 30 or 40 years
ago, a petrol engine used to run with a
carburettor.
"It’s still a petrol engine. What was not
possible with a petrol engine at the time
is very normal today.
“Today, the development of hydrogen
ICE is still premature, like that early time
of petrol engines. We have to approach
it in a very cautious way. Instead of
checking it every month, perhaps we
have to check every hour.
"I’m exaggerating a bit, but I hope you
can get a feeling that what it is today
isn’t the target for what it could be in
the future.
“It’s still at an early phase, and we
are trying to understand how hydrogen
behaves and how the combustion
behaviour is established.
“This is a deep topic, even with
petrol engines we work on, and
hydrogen is new.”
Eggs in multiple baskets
Hydrogen combustion technology is
temptingly similar to existing petrol
engines, but different enough to require
heavy investment in both engineering
and infrastructure to reach widespread
adoption. For this reason, it is not
feasible to simply convert every ICE car
on the road to run on hydrogen instead
of turning to EVs.
However, with a few years’ more
development, it could reach a level
of maturity that would enable
manufacturers to sell hydrogen
combustion cars in showrooms –
complete with warranties and reasonable
expectations of reliability.
Aoki concludes: “From Toyota’s
viewpoint, we’re moving forward with a
multi-pathway approach. We would like
to provide different solutions that can
work with different fuels.
“We would like to prepare for different
technology, and for better or worse
can be different in different regions or
different parts of the world.” i
42
AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS Q4 2025
