Toyota Hydrogen HiAce 2023 Review

Toyota hasn’t revealed how much the 2023 Toyota Hydrogen HiAce would cost if it gets approved for sale.

But the man responsible for the Japanese car-maker’s hydrogen projects insists it’ll be cheaper than current FCEVs, such as the Toyota Mirai.

At present, the Mirai can only be leased by companies in Australia for around $60,000, but in places like the US the ground-breaking hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle costs around $US50,000, or roughly $A78,000.

Toyota Motor Corporation president of hydrogen projects, Mitsumasa Yamagata, wouldn’t tell carsales how much the company has invested in the HiAce pilot program. However, he said that because the Hydrogen HiAce uses existing ICE technology, in the form of the brand’s 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol V6, development costs weren’t excessive.

How this would translate to the purchase price of a potential commercial van or HiLux powered by hydrogen remains to be seen, but given H2 tanks are far more robust and complex than a conventional fuel tank, and that new fuel-injectors and some upgraded engine internals are required to convert the petrol engine, you can expect a reasonable price premium above a typical diesel van or ute.

First and foremost, it’s smooth and quiet. After driving the 2023 Toyota Hydrogen HiAce around Toyota Australia’s Altona test track in Melbourne, it’s manifestly clear that pumping H2 into a combustion engine creates far less of a hubbub than petrol – and especially diesel.

This isn’t a massive issue in the commercial vehicle space, where cargo hauling and utilitarianism trumps niceties like comfort and sophistication, but it’s heartening to experience just how refined and quiet the hydrogen-fed V6 is.

Then you’ve got tailpipe emissions, which are ultra-low. But not quite zero.

After burning hydrogen in a combustion engine, water vapour is the main emission, but because the engine requires oil for the lubrication of its internal components and also very low amounts of Adblue to counter NOx emissions (mostly from burning the 80 per cent nitrogen that exists in the air we breathe), this van is technically not a zero-emissions vehicle.

Toyota says it’s 99.8 per cent carbon-neutral, emitting 0.2 per cent CO2.

The suspension is unchanged from the regular Toyota HiAce, as are the brakes, both of which are fit for purpose and predictably functional. Around a short loop at Toyota Australia’s research and development centre in Altona, it drove through the corners like any HiAce – lethargically.

But perhaps the key takeout of our short drive is just how seamless the drive experience is, and how similar it feels to a regular petrol- or diesel-powered van. Power builds up as the revs rise, the automatic transmission changes gear when necessary (sort of) and, overall, it feels like a familiar, known quantity – something fleet buyers looking to reduce their carbon footprint will appreciate.

Another good thing about the Toyota Hydrogen HiAce is its ability to be refuelled in around five minutes, which is considerably less than most EVs take to charge.

But there’s just as many negatives as there are positives when it comes to the 2023 Toyota Hydrogen HiAce, and the elephant in the room is finding a hydrogen fuel station to refuel this van.

Luckily for this test drive, Toyota has a hydrogen refuller on site at Altona, but currently there are only a handful of H2 stations in Australia, including Toyota Australia’s HQ (Melbourne), Hyundai’s head office (Sydney) and only three others located in Canberra, Brisbane and Geelong.

Of those five, only Viva Engery’s Geelong-based heavy-vehicle refuelling depot is open to the public.

Unlike hydrogen combustion vehicles, which Toyota says are relatively cost-effective to roll out, the fuel itself is problematic given it’s the smallest atom in existence which makes hydrogen very challenging (read: expensive and potentially dangerous) to transport and contain – even more so than a liquid fuel such as petroleum.

This particular hydrogen-fuelled combustion vehicle is fitted with hydrogen sniffers pilfered from the Toyota Mirai FCEV, which are required to detect gas leakage around its three tanks, fuel lines and engine. If that happens the system is completely shut down immediately.

Fitted with three reinforced hydrogen tanks that can hold around 6.2kg of compressed hydrogen gas, or H2, Toyota says the HiAce has a range of ‘around 200km’, which ain’t much.

Also, the hydrogen prototype van’s 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6, which bangs out a very healthy 310kW of power and 600Nm of torque when fed petrol in the Lexus LX 600, now generates a paltry 120kW and 354Nm.

In practice, it feels slower than it sounds and the lack of urgency isn’t helped by gearbox calibration. The 10-speed automatic often had to hunt for gears and even changed gears under a steady throttle for no reason.

Those calibration issues and lack of power are understandable given this is a prototype and not a production-ready, commercially-available vehicle. And the fundamentals are sound – it’s a smooth and effective form of cargo transport (although we didn’t test it with a load onboard).

Yamagata says that adding Toyota hybrid tech to its combustion hydrogen powertrain would yield even greater efficiency and power.

Adopting hydrogen-powered vehicles en masse would be an effective way to greatly reduce the CO2 emissions from the transport sector, which contributes around 20 per cent of Australia’s CO2 emissions.

According to the Australian government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water says that if things don’t change soon, the transport sector will be the country’s biggest single emitter of CO2 by 2030.

The challenge for Toyota Australia and other hydrogen proponents such as Hyundai Australia – with which it has partnered to build interest and raise capital – is infrastructure.

It’s not there yet and probably won’t be for a long time.

Toyota has shown that it can modify petrol engines to run on hydrogen in a relatively cost-effective manner with this HiAce pilot project, but the difficulties of transporting the compressed gas are not as easy.

The physical nature of hydrogen gas makes it significantly harder to transport safely than liquefied fuels like petrol or diesel. Moving it around in large quantities requires expensive cryogenic tanks and ocean transport of hydrogen gas can likewise only be done safely at extreme sub-zero temperatures.

Even creating hydrogen is proving challenging, with the cost of electrolysis still roughly double that of the crude oil price.

The 2023 Toyota Hydrogen HiAce is an impressive proof of concept. It shows that if – or perhaps when – hydrogen refuelling infrastructure improves and goes mainstream, current combustion engine tech can be easily and affordably adapted to run on hydrogen.

Toyota is serious about hydrogen as an alternative fuel source and an H2-combustion version of the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series is also in the works – as are EV and FCEV versions of the HiLux.

But when even the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reckons that hydrogen uptake will be slow for the next couple of decades due to the high investment costs and will account for only around 14 per cent of global energy consumption by 2050, expect vehicles like this to be fringe experiments for a very long time.

Zero- and ultra-low emission vehicles like this HiAce prototype will be required on a global scale if countries are serious about meeting their net-zero carbon emission targets by 2050, and in many ways combustion-engined hydrogen vehicles could be a viable alternative to diesel, affording larger commercial vehicles and trucks a viable alternative to battery-electric and perhaps even FCEV powertrains.

There’s no doubt that a hydrogen van can work, as we saw with our world-first drive. But which comes first, the chicken or the egg? You need hydrogen vehicles to generate investment in hydrogen fuel stations, but you need the refuelling infrastructure to compel more car-makers to fast-track vehicle development.

For now, this is one small step for hydrogen-powered ICE cars, but it could one day lead to a giant leap for Toyota.

2023 Toyota Hydrogen HiAce prototype at a glance:
Price: TBC
Available: TBC
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Output: 120kW/354Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel: N/A
Range: 200km approx
CO2: Ultra-low
Safety rating: Not tested