The promise of a truly emissions-free vehicle is the motivation that drove Toyota to produce a fuel cell vehicle prototype as early as 1996. That vehicle became the first fuel cell vehicle in the world to store pure hydrogen fuel onboard in a hydrogen-absorbing alloy. A year later, Toyota engineers made history again—this time with a methanol-powered vehicle. Toyota unveiled the world's first methanol-powered FCHV at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1997. Success with these prototypes convinced Toyota to complete its R&D phase and advance to the product development phase.
As commercialization efforts progress, Toyota engineers have made great strides in improving the components necessary for viable fuel cell vehicles.
The vehicle’s most important part, of course, is its fuel cell stack; Toyota recently revealed a new fuel cellstack; Toyota recently revealed a new fuel cell stack that can generate over 70kW—while occupying a mere 65 liters of volume. This feat already exceeds the U.S. Department of Energy's 2004 target of 1kW of energy per liter of volume.
Fuel cells also require oxygen to function, and while atmospheric oxygen can be used, a significant volume of air must be forced into the fuel stack. Toyota has developed high-efficiency air compressors especially for this purpose, allowing the fuel cell stack to operate at maximum efficiency.
Fuel Cell Hybrids