Together with Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda, and Yamaha, Toyota is part of the Hydrogen Small mobility & Engine technology (HySE) research group. The group held a roundtable to explain the vehicle’s entry into Dakar 2024, the Toyota Times reported.
HySE Chairman Kenji Komatsu:
At the Super Taikyu Okayama event in November 2021, with the support of Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki, we made the announcement (of a new collaboration toward carbon neutrality).
Then, at Motegi in September 2022, we unveiled an off-road buggy for researching hydrogen engines.In May of this year, we held a press conference after receiving approval from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). This was followed by the launch of our website, and today, we are announcing our entry into Dakar.
Keita Nakanishi, who is overseeing the Dakar attempt, explained the purpose of joining the rally.
“Our aims in entering Dakar are two-fold. Firstly, we want to use the harsh environmental conditions to identify issues and accelerate development towards HySE’s goal of establishing baseline hydrogen technologies.
Second, by promoting HySE’s presence and initiatives on the global stage, we hope to encourage companies that embrace our vision to get involved.
Our entry in Dakar will be under a new category to be created in January 2024. We envision this as a mobile laboratory for developing reliability”.
HySE will take part in the Dakar Future Mission 1000, a new category that will kick off in January 2024. As the name implies, competitors must cover roughly 100 kilometers per day, totaling 1,000 km over 10 days. Although the start will differ from the regular race, the finish line is the same.
Entry into this category is limited to sustainable alternative energy vehicles such as battery EVs, hydrogen-fueled cars, and hybrids. In the hydrogen category, two other cars are expected to participate alongside HySE.
Photo of Toyota Times
Source https://is.gd/2BnsMj
