Bourton-on-the-Water was the star of the show in a brand-new Toyota advert.
The UK’s first hydrogen-fuelled remote-control car was unveiled during a unique test drive, hosted at the Old New Inn Model Village.
Toyota brought together experts from Bramble Energy and model car company, Tamiya UK, to create a 1:10 scale replica of the new Mirai hydrogen saloon.
David Rogers, Toyota spokesperson on alternative fuels, said: “We undertook this challenge to have some fun and show what can be done with fuel cells and we think the results are great!"
Mr Rogers added:“Cars are the tip of the iceberg for Toyota in terms of progress towards a hydrogen society.
“Hydrogen will play a key role in meeting our future energy needs, bringing zero emission driving for both big cities and small villages.
“It allows us to store renewable energy and transport it easily, so that it can be used on demand to power a variety of industries.”
You can see how it faired on its maiden drive here:
The Tamiya model car can cover twice the distance of a conventional battery-powered RC car while its full-size equivalent can cover up to 400 miles on a tank of hydrogen.
Toyota first released a hydrogen-fuelled car in 2015 and this year they have increased production of fuel cells ten-fold, to 30,000 units.
Tom Mason, CEO and Co-Founder of Bramble Energy, said: “We had to shrink a whole fuel cell system down to the size of an RC car, which gave our engineers a good challenge.
“Our fuel cell technology is made from the printed circuit board industry which can be turned into any size or shape, so the core fuel cell component was actually not that big a challenge.
“The biggest hurdle was to make all the system components required to run the fuel cell small and compact enough to fit onto the Tamiya TT02 chassis and inside the Mirai RC car shell.”
Meanwhile, Alistair Brebner from Tamiya UK added: “We believe these adapted hydrogen-powered Tamiya cars are the first hydrogen fuel cell RC cars in the UK, and they mirror the way full-size vehicles will be powered in the future.
“It’s been great to see them in action at the model village; they performed really well. It’s been fascinating to take a standard Tamiya TT-02 radio-controlled car that you can buy in a shop and convert it to some innovative hydrogen technology so that run time is much improved, without losing any of the great performance that’s synonymous with Tamiya.
“While we are a long way off being able to offer a hydrogen powered RC car for purchase, this challenge has proved that a scaled down and adaptable version of H2 can be a superb energy platform for our cars.
“The route Toyota is taking with hydrogen fuel cell technology is very exciting, with lots of environmental and efficiency benefits. Adapting its use to 1:10 scale Tamiya RC vehicles highlights the future possibilities for a hydrogen society.”
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