√2022 Toyota GR Yaris H2 takes hydrogen power to the World Rally Championship

A Toyota motorsport program using hydrogen in place of petrol power jumps to the next level with four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen as the driver.

A 2022 Toyota GR Yaris running on hydrogen fuel will tackle the stages at the World Rally Championship in Belgium as the Japanese car giant steps up its development work on the future fuel.

It will be the public competition debut of the GR Yaris H2, although the car was previewed last year and its engine and fuel system are already fitted to a GR Corolla H2 that raced in Japan in June.

Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, was one of the drivers at the Fuji 24 Hours race and shared the Corolla H2 with Toyota Gazoo Racing’s rally team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala.

It was the second time Toyota had competed in the 24-Hour race with a hydrogen-fuelled Corolla, running in an alternate-energy class against rivals including a bio-fuel Mazda2 and a Toyota GR 86 and a Subaru BRZ both running on natural gas.

Unlike ‘fuel cell’ hydrogen vehicles which use the energy source to create electricity that powers an electric motor, the Toyota GR Yaris 1.6-litre turbo three-cylinder engine has been converted to run on hydrogen, via a special Denso injection system.

The car has four hydrogen tanks capable of holding 180 litres of the fuel.

The Toyota GR Corolla H2 finished last at Fuji, handicapped by its limited range and long refuelling times, but completed more than 450 laps of the 4.56-kilometre circuit.

The Toyota GR Yaris H2 for the WRC outing will only tackle a single stage on each day of the Ypres Rally with Kankkunen, a 63-year-old former Toyota factory rally driver who won the fourth of his world titles driving a Toyota Celica GT-4 in 1993.

It will run ahead of the competition field, which will be led by world championship leader Kalle Rovanpera driving a 2022 GR Yaria Rally1 Hyrbrid.

“I would love to have driven the car myself but with my focus on the rally, I’m looking forward to hear what Juha Kankkunen makes of driving a hydrogen-fuelled car,” said Latvalla in an official Toyota press statement.

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