TOKYO — When Akio Toyoda put an experimental Corolla onto a racetrack final yr, he was one thing of a lone voice within the wilderness touting the idea of hydrogen-burning engines as a strong power for carbon neutrality in an auto trade gone gaga over pure electrical autos.

However Toyota Motor Corp. is discovering unlikely allies within the provider world.

U.S. turbocharging large BorgWarner Inc. and Japanese piston ring specialist Riken Corp. are each chasing clear inner combustion. Each have ramped up growth of applied sciences to burn zero-emission hydrogen, as an alternative of soiled gasoline, in tomorrow’s engines.

Not hydrogen gas cells — however combustion engines that use hydrogen as an alternative of gasoline.

A rising checklist of firms is warming to the thought.

BorgWarner is rolling out a full line of parts for hydrogen engines, together with injectors, a rail system and an digital management unit. This yr, the Michigan firm even received its first contract to produce the brand new setup to a European development tools producer.

Riken, in the meantime, created a brand new unit final yr to interrupt into hydrogen engine parts. And in Could, it opened a hydrogen engine analysis heart at a plant in Japan.

Toyota has been a vocal, if generally solitary, advocate of hydrogen combustion since Toyoda climbed behind the wheel of that prototype Corolla race automobile. Over the previous yr, he has pushed the hydrogen-burning Corolla, and extra not too long ago a hydrogen-powered Yaris, in quite a few races.

However Toyoda’s message that carbon, not combustion, is the enemy has gained little traction in a worldwide trade that is plowing lots of of billions of {dollars} into pluggable EVs.

Hydrogen combustion is definitely carbon free. And it has the additional advantage of piggybacking on current engine applied sciences and the sprawling worldwide community of suppliers and staff that develop and ship them. For firms vested in inner combustion merchandise, comparable to BorgWarner or Riken, hydrogen guarantees a extra seamless transition to a carbon-neutral future.

“The issue isn’t the interior combustion engine,” mentioned Hans Hardam, nation supervisor and chief engineer for gas methods at BorgWarner Japan Ltd. “The issue is carbon.”

His sentiment echoes Toyoda’s virtually to the letter. As head of the world’s largest automaker, Toyoda misses no alternative to espouse his firm’s philosophy that clean-burning combustion is simply as viable within the carbon impartial gambit as EVs and gas cell autos.

In the meantime, different automotive gamers are delving into hydrogen combustion, together with Daimler, MAN Truck and Bus, engine maker Cummins and powertrain specialist AVL. In Japan, Yamaha Motor is taking a look at it for potential use in bikes and all-terrain runabouts. Earlier this yr, Yamaha labored up a 5.0-liter V-8 hydrogen engine based mostly on the Toyota powertrain used within the Lexus RC F sport coupe.

Aiming even increased, Rolls-Royce is teaming with easyJet to place hydrogen engines in planes.

On the bottom, hydrogen combustion proponents see the potential for early commercialization in vehicles and different heavy autos in development, agriculture or marine purposes. Hydrogen’s density makes it a greater substitute for diesel than electrical batteries. Machines that work lengthy hours with heavy hundreds would wish impractical heavy and costly battery packs, the pondering goes.

BorgWarner expects preliminary deployment in heavy autos, but it surely additionally sees use in SUVs and pickups — autos which are heavy in their very own proper and sometimes used to haul hefty cargo. However the firm additionally consider there is a chance for hydrogen combustion in area of interest markets for sports activities automobiles and off-roaders.

BorgWarner has been engaged on hydrogen combustion for a decade and has two growth facilities for it in Europe, one in Blois, France, the opposite in Gillingham, UK. However discussions with clients have picked up solely in recent times, Hardam mentioned.

For old-school combustion specialists like BorgWarner and Riken, the prospect for hydrogen combustion cushions what would possibly in any other case be a jarring shift to an all-electric future.

“The auto components trade can be going through a ‘once-in-a-century interval of nice change,’ and is required to bear main adjustments and reforms,” Riken mentioned of its hydrogen initiative. “We are going to make most use of the engine information that we’ve got collected over 90 years and concentrate on creating hydrogen engines as next-generation engines that may obtain decarbonization.”

Suppliers are below strain. BorgWarner has dedicated to going carbon impartial in its operations by 2035 and sees hydrogen combustion as a approach to ease into the longer term by tweaking at the moment’s applied sciences.

“With 5.5 million individuals working in Japan’s auto trade, we need to keep away from too fast of an trade structural change,” mentioned Kunihiko Mishima, common supervisor of BorgWarner Morse Programs Japan, one of many firm’s native subsidiaries. “That is why Japanese producers are serious about different fuels and so forth. Japanese OEMs are very, very critical about carbon neutrality.”

However BorgWarner, which reached slightly below $14 billion in authentic tools components gross sales final yr, needs to go carbon impartial by constructing on its current experience in turbochargers, injectors, gas rails, temperature sensors and EGR methods. It additionally sees potential in hydrogen engine management models and software program modules to control the strain of hydrogen from the tank.

Turbochargers, particularly, are required for hydrogen engines with a view to ship the optimum steadiness of energy and emissions, the corporate says. Hydrogen wants extra air than gasoline within the combustion equation and must function on the lean aspect to tamp down temperatures. Hydrogen additionally has the potential for increased thermal effectivity than gasoline, BorgWarner predicts.

Whereas the methods are nearly carbon free — they emit solely hint quantities from burned-off lubricant — they aren’t emissions free. As with diesel, nitrogen oxide is the primary problem.

However BorgWarner sees hydrogen combustion as an vital instrument in reaching its company purpose of carbon neutrality by 2035. And like Toyota, which champions hydrogen as only one path ahead, BorgWarner additionally sees the methods as a part of a mixed-cocktail strategy for a greener tomorrow.

Small passenger automobiles will doubtless gravitate towards pure battery electrics, whereas hydrogen gas cells will ultimately emerge as a extra mainstream choice throughout the board.

However hydrogen combustion will fill sure gaps.

The expertise provides as a lot as 30 % to the price of current engines. However as a result of it builds on confirmed expertise, hydrogen combustion continues to be cheaper than battery electrics and gas cells.

And since the availability chain already exists, hydrogen combustion might be delivered to market extra rapidly than next-generation batteries and gas cell stacks. In contrast with gas cells, hydrogen combustion is more cost effective, extra dependable and extra sturdy, proponents say. But it surely additionally lags gas cell expertise a bit of in effectivity. And in contrast with pure battery electrical methods, hydrogen combustion performs higher in cold and warm environments and below heavy hundreds.

As a result of hydrogen combustion is such a nascent and area of interest expertise, there may be little in the best way of a forecast of its long-term market penetration. However BorgWarner predicts hydrogen combustion may ultimately comprise 20 % to 30 % of the heavy-duty car and tools sector.

“There are nonetheless lots of unknowns,” Hardam mentioned. “However there may be excessive potential on this market.”

Leveraging current combustion applied sciences is vital for old-school suppliers comparable to BorgWarner. However even because it seeks to modernize its portfolio, it is not ignoring the migration to EVs. The corporate obtained slightly below 3 % of its international income from EV-related merchandise final yr. It needs that to extend to 25 % or extra in 2025, after which to 45 % in 2030. It has a protracted guidelines of recent merchandise to focus on, together with electrical drive motors, inverters, on-board chargers, DC-DC converters and battery pack controllers.

“You will notice far more range in powertrains,” Hardam mentioned. “It will likely be a cocktail mixture of options relying available on the market, the area, firm insurance policies and authorities insurance policies.”

BorgWarner has a giant presence in Japan, with two factories and a community of technical facilities and engineering places of work that serve virtually all of Japan’s large automakers. It additionally has a three way partnership with Japanese steering and ball-and-bearing maker NSK Corp.

In Japan, it began making engine and transmission chains and now makes all-manner of engine-related parts, together with timing chains, sprockets and variable cam timing methods.

However BorgWarner is not delving into hydrogen combustion merely as a play for enterprise with Toyota. It seeks deserves within the expertise in its personal proper. Its major analysis facilities are in Europe, and it’s casting for purchasers not solely in Japan however in South Korea, Europe, China and the U.S.

Explains Hardam: “It isn’t only a Japanese or a Toyota-only exercise.”