Toyota has built a tiny hydrogen-powered RC car | FOS Future Lab
Toyota has revealed a new Mirai that you can drive without being in it. Of course, driving from within it isn’t actually strictly possible, seeing as it’s an RC car. Specifically, the UK’s first hydrogen-fuelled RC car. So yes, while a scale model, it’s true to the powertrain of its full-sized counterpart.
Toyota worked with Tamiya and Bramble Energy on the project, to explore what can be achieved “at opposite ends of the mobility scale”. The RC model is 1/10th scale and has a miniaturised fuel cell. Curiously, an equivalent battery-powered RC car will go half the distance of this mini hydrogen Mirai.
Apparently the biggest challenge in creating the RC car was miniaturising system components to run the fuel cell, to a point that they could sit inside the Tamiya chassis and inside the 1/10th scale Mirai shape.
Tamiya says they’re “a long way off being able to offer a hydrogen-powered RC car for purchase” but that “this challenge has proved that a scaled-down and adaptable version of H2 can be a superb energy platform for our cars”.
Well, if you’re going to gun for a ‘hydrogen society’, you might as well start with the model village…
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