Toyota develops 500 mile-plus fuel cell hybrid

Toyota is working closely with governments and energy companies to best determine how it could bring its new fuel-cell hybrid into production.

Doubling the distance previously traveled by its predecessor, the Toyota FCHV-adv (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle-advanced) can now shuttle some 515 miles thanks to its on-board high-pressure hydrogen tanks before needing a breather and fuel rehydration. The standing record of 205 miles between top ups was set by the Toyota FCHV, before the Japanese car manufacturer's team of white coats returned to labs with the remit to 'do better'.

So how was this achieved?

25% was gained through improving fuel cell performance, tweaking the regenerative braking system and minimizing energy consumed by the auxiliary assemblage. Otherwise, utilising degradation control for the electrode catalyst and enhancing fuel cell durability makes about as much sense to us as it will you. But it's all good for Toyota, car buyers and the planet.

The FCHV-adv journeys to where no machine of its kind has gone before. Not exactly Jules Verne territory, yet to another, harsh, hostile landscape. The North Pole for example.

Ignition sequences in low temperatures are notoriously fraught with problems when it comes to fuel cell vehicles. Not so Toyota's core FC Stack though.

The founding principles of the FC Stack is the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) where Toyota's Tefal-challenging engineers have given a deal of thought to internally produced water naturally interfering with electrical generation within the MEA at challenging temperatures.

The boffins carried out extensive studies to comprehend the behaviour and quantities of water produced in a fuel cell. Much chin-rubbing and inexplicable calculus later, they think they've cracked it.

And to lend substance to this claim, the Toyota FCHV-adv can turn over in temperatures as frosty as -30 degrees Celsius. Which means this theoretically unique fuel cell vehicle could be put into practice in the most unwelcoming of environments around the globe.