Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. received the Technology & Development Award from Toyota Motor Corporation for the development of high-pressure hydrogen tanks used on the new MIRAI, launched by Toyota in December 2020.

The new MIRAI is equipped with three hydrogen tanks, one more than the previous model, to extend its cruising range. This is an issue that is important for the widespread adoption of FCVs. Toyoda Gosei produces the third high-pressure hydrogen tank, which is located in the rear of the new MIRAI, while Toyota continues to produce the other two.

Production started from November 2020 at the Inabe Plant (Inabe, Mie prefecture, Japan) which was established as a dedicated plant for high-pressure hydrogen tanks.

Toyoda Gosei developed the new tank together with Toyota Motor Corporation. For the new tanks, improvements have been made in the materials used in the carbon fiber reinforced plastic layer, one of the three layers of the tank wall (layer to withstand high pressure), production methods and other factors.

As a result, the hydrogen storage efficiency of the tank, which is the ratio of the mass of stored hydrogen to the mass of the tank, was increased about 10% by minimizing the wall thickness to increase the inner volume while maintaining the pressure resistance strength.

Toyoda Gosei will continue to develop products leveraging its core technologies of rubber and plastic with the aim of supporting the spread of electrified vehicles such as electric vehicles (EVs) and FCVs.