Toyota Powers Two AE86 Coupes with Batteries and Hydrogen

• The AE86 is a sports coupe based on the Corolla which was sold between 1983 and 1987

• The company wants to show ways to enjoy classic cars in a carbon-neutral way.

• The EV uses a motor from the Tundra hybrid and the hydrogen variant retains its original engine.

Despite being late to the EV market, Toyota is committed to achieving a carbon-neutral status by 2050 in other ways.

One of the ways the company believes could help reduce emissions enough to meet global targets by then is to convert older cars to use electricity or hydrogen.

Indeed, Toyota doesn’t believe that only making new cars sustainable will be sufficient to reduce polluting emissions significantly over the next few decades.

To showcase how classic car conversions can be done, the automaker presented two concepts based on the popular AE86 coupes of the 80s at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

One of the cars is now powered by an electric motor sourced from a Tundra hybrid pickup and a battery taken from a Prius Prime, while the other saw its original engine be modified to run on hydrogen.

Unlike current hydrogen-powered vehicles that can best be described as EVs that generate their own electricity, this concept uses a combustion engine to burn hydrogen instead of gasoline.

This technology was tested by Toyota in the last two years when it entered a modified Corolla race car in Japan’s Super Taikyu Series.

According to the company, the engine in the 80s coupe had to receive new injectors, fuel lines, and spark plugs in addition to the two Mirai hydrogen tanks that now sit in the trunk.

The electric version is said to retain its original manual transmission, which is interesting since Toyota is currently working on a simulated manual transmission for EVs.

The automaker says the lightness and rear bias of both vehicles were retained as much as possible, which is always a concern in EVs since batteries are very heavy.

Toyota chose this specific model for the conversion because the Corolla-based AE86 coupes have long been a favourite of enthusiasts and amateur racing drivers.

Source: CarExpert