If Elon Musk would have his way, hydrogen fuel cell cars would probably exist only as basic means of transportation within his Tesla Gigafactory. Other manufacturers however feel that hydrogen could be an excellent solution in this industry.
You have to hand it to the Japanese for their quirky concept car designs. We usually tend to think that they’re really good at “glimpsing” into the future and coming up with something practical, sustainable and just plain different, and that might even be the case sometimes. But this thing kind of looks like that taxi from the original Total Recall movie, doesn’t it?
Anyway, it’s compact in size but has a pretty spacious cabin thanks to way the hydrogen tank and fuel cell stack have been positioned. At the same time, the driver and occupants get excellent 360 degree visibility in this thing, which would come in handy even in today’s world.
Of course, such a car would probably need to be fully autonomous because…actually, it could only exist in a fully autonomous society since it doesn’t look like it might successfully pass any Euro NCAP safety tests – though it would probably ace the moose test thanks to its “optimal weight balance”.
What is truly exceptional about the FCV Plus concept is that it can generate electricity directly from hydrogen stored outside of its own tank. What this means is that you can basically turn your FCV Plus into a source of electric power which you can use both at home or on the road. When you’re not using the car, it can be safely integrated into the local infrastructure so that it can help generate energy for the community.
We have to admit, that’s some pretty forward thinking from Toyota, and hopefully we do get to see cars working on these principles sometime in the future…as long as they look nice.
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