“Some of our most passionate customers want even more adventure,” Lexus announces this concept version of a carbon neutral off-road buggy, or the Recreational Off-highway Vehicle (ROV). Not on batteries, not even with a fuel cell, but with a hydrogen combustion engine, just like yesterday’s Toyota GR Yaris H2. This way you can still have some fun without your ecological conscience gnawing at you too much.
10,500 rpm
The drive is provided by a 1-litre combustion engine that can run up to 10,500 rpm! Lexus doesn’t say which engine it uses, just that it doesn’t require many modifications to convert it from gasoline to hydrogen. A new fuel system was sufficient. Lexus promises an “exciting sound and good response thanks to the rapid combustion of hydrogen”.
We also see that some of the brand’s styling features have been carried over to the body. For example, the angular panels and light signature match what you see on the latest models of the luxury brand from Toyota. The windshield can be flipped up to really be out in the elements. We also see a modern but spartan-looking ‘interior’, with high-quality-looking materials. The seats are designed to absorb shocks. The ROV measures 3.12 m (long) by 1.725 m (wide) by 1.80 m (high).
Vroom vroom without a cough cough
A hydrogen combustion engine is not the most energy-efficient solution in terms of propulsion, after all, you first have to create the hydrogen, which already requires a lot of energy, and then burn it with an efficiency of barely 30 percent. But it is a way to keep the combustion engine alive and also the sensations that the plop engine brings with it, without CO2 coming out of the exhaust.
Toyota is already racing a Corolla with the 1.6 liter three-cylinder from the GR Yaris, but then on hydrogen, which already produces as much power as on regular petrol. In addition, ways are being explored to produce hydrogen in a portable form, with power paste as the best-known/recent example, to make it easier to refuel H2 vehicles on the road. All developments that should ensure that we can each do our own thing in terms of mobility in a (hopefully) carbon neutral future, without too many restrictions.
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