Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
01-13-2023, 09:50 AM (This post was last modified: 01-13-2023 05:00 PM by banpei.)
Post: #1
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
Gazoo Racing created two AE86 related concept vehicles: a three door Levin with an EV power train (and fake 4A-GE noise) and a 4A-GE powered three door Trueno than runs on Hydrogen!


The EV is taken sideways, but the Trueno is driven really slowly on the test track. I reckon it's deemed not good enough yet to do that. Wink

The video is full of small tongue-in-cheek-jokes. The Levin has written Electric Vehicle (experimental) on the side in the familiar Fujiwara Tofu Ten manner, while the Trueno has written Hydrogen Engine (experimental) on the side. The Trueno also features the Japanese 1980s sticker that used to read "only fill up with high quality unleaded fuel" that now reads "only fill up with high quality hydrogen". Both cars are on display at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

1982 - TA60 Carina 4dr sedan - fun cruiser
1983 - AE86 Sprinter Trueno - import project
2013 - Honda Civic sport - daily driver
2004 - AEU86 dot ORG - daily domain

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01-13-2023, 12:28 PM
Post: #2
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
That is really cool and I'm happy the spent the time and resources to make this most probably one offs.
I also like the fact they kept the gearbox in the EV. Now add the new solid state batteries they are developing and offer it as an official swap and I might go for it if it was reasonably priced.

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01-13-2023, 01:32 PM
Post: #3
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
Very nice indeed!
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01-13-2023, 03:05 PM
Post: #4
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
Looks interesting, they obviously put a lot of effort into both of those 86s. Hydrogen cars seem to have been one of those concepts that's "almost ready" for about as long as I can remember, so it would be nice to see the technology develop further.
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01-13-2023, 04:20 PM (This post was last modified: 01-13-2023 05:07 PM by banpei.)
Post: #5
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
I recall watching this video by Engineering Explained about the Yamaha/Toyota Hydrogen V8:


The conclusion was that the Lexus RC-F was only able to drive for about 50 miles on hydrogen on its normal fuel tank size. If 300 miles range was necessary it would need a tank of at least 105 gallons.
The Mirai has 5.6kg of Hydrogen stored in 3 tanks. Gazoo mounted only 2 tanks in this Trueno, so it would contain 3.7kg of Hydrogen. The AE86 has a combined mileage of 31mpg, so that would give us 115 miles (186 kilometres) range. The latest Nissan Leaf has a range of 149 miles, so at least it's not much worse than that! Big Grin

On the Tokyo Auto Salon stand the Levin has the E and V of LEVIN filled in to do a wordplay on EV. Also the rear reads APEX NON CAM 0. I think they did this as a last minute joke as these aren't in this video. You can find the photos here:
[Image: AEU86 AE86 - Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts][Image: AEU86 AE86 - Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts]
If you look close enough you can see the APEX NON CAM 0 has no gradient and has been cut from black vinyl (like the AEU86 stickers) and the Toyota Corolla LEVIN is an original sticker where the LEVIN part has been filled in by pasting some cut vinyl over it as the black borders are messy.


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1982 - TA60 Carina 4dr sedan - fun cruiser
1983 - AE86 Sprinter Trueno - import project
2013 - Honda Civic sport - daily driver
2004 - AEU86 dot ORG - daily domain

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01-13-2023, 06:07 PM
Post: #6
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
The Engineering Explained guy could have saved a lot of space if he had just stacked the buckets inside each other (that's a joke btw).
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01-19-2023, 11:51 AM
Post: #7
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
(01-13-2023 04:20 PM)banpei Wrote:  The Mirai has 5.6kg of Hydrogen stored in 3 tanks. Gazoo mounted only 2 tanks in this Trueno, so it would contain 3.7kg of Hydrogen. The AE86 has a combined mileage of 31mpg, so that would give us 115 miles (186 kilometres) range. The latest Nissan Leaf has a range of 149 miles, so at least it's not much worse than that! Big Grin
Also keep in mind that the Mirai gets double the range per kg of hydrogen (60-80% efficiency with fuelcells vs <30% with an ICE) and has a small battery for recuperation. Hydrogen in a combustion engine is more of a gimmick than useful in any way.
Also, it's obvious why they didn't go sideways, running on hydrogen with minor changes means it loses about half the power. Try going sideways with some 60PS @ 5000rpm peak power.

In terms of keeping these old cars on the road in the future, I only see either EV-swapping them or getting gasoline/diesel-equivalent E-fuels. Those are approaching some 4-5€/liter (pre-tax) and could possibly be sold with lower tax than fossil fuels (politics allowing...). With further improvements in the power-to-gas processes it's reasonably possible to reach 2€/liter production costs. They'll never beat EVs in efficiency or cost/kilometer (energy, maintenance, etc), but they'd be cheap enough to run for keeping a healthy oldtimer community afloat.
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01-19-2023, 04:07 PM
Post: #8
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
Guess that is one good thing of age, I did/still do had my many years of joy already so whatever comes next will be fine with me Big Grin

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01-19-2023, 05:24 PM
Post: #9
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
I don't have an AE86, but do have an old car. It has crossed my mind to carry out an EV conversion just because it seems like the simplest method of keeping the car on the road long term. I had been hoping for another solution though, just doesn't seem right to dispose of the IC engine.
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01-20-2023, 08:57 AM
Post: #10
Gazoo Racing AE86 Hydrogen and EV concepts
(01-19-2023 05:24 PM)Power_uP Wrote:  I don't have an AE86, but do have an old car. It has crossed my mind to carry out an EV conversion just because it seems like the simplest method of keeping the car on the road long term. I had been hoping for another solution though, just doesn't seem right to dispose of the IC engine.
There's quite some research being done in the field of sustainable/green fuel alternatives - the question will be how long is it going to take, cost, emissions, compatibility and so forth. If it takes too long the current oil lobby will simply be replaced by the ev lobby and anything new/different is going to have a hard time.

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