Toyota loves hydrogen. The company has long beaten its head against the fuel cell wall as an alternative to building EVs, but none of its trying has yet made hydrogen take off as a green option in the United States — there are still only 54 hydrogen stations in the U.S., mostly in southern California. But Toyota isn’t giving up, and its latest concept takes a new approach in trying to make hydrogen cool: Bringing the alternative fuel off-road, and using its “exhaust” water for camping.
This concept is called the Tacoma H2-Overlander, and Toyota touts it as the future of high-performance off-roading. The company claims that the truck packs 547 electric horsepower, fueled by both a Mirai hydrogen fuel cell and a more typical 24.9 kWh battery pack. The truck wears Fox offroad shocks, big dirt tires on small dirt wheels, bed racks and rally lights and a winch — all the typical overland accoutrement. But this is a hydrogen truck, so it needs a hydrogen party trick: Preserving the wastewater from the hydrogen fuel cell, and making it available for showering or washing camp supplies.
Gimmicks aplenty
Of course, this is a SEMA build — these things aren’t built for practicality, and the H2-Overlander appears to be no exception. The Toyota Mirai claims 402 miles of range from its fuel cell, and it’s unlikely the bigger, heavier Tacoma can hit those same numbers using the same hardware (Toyota’s press release is unsurprisingly silent on range). An overland vehicle that can only operate out of Los Angeles, with a very limited range of operation before it has to go back to the city, isn’t exactly the fearless blazer of new trails that overlanders want to be. It might make a viable camp vehicle, though, so long as you don’t stray too far.
The H2-Overlander is highly unlikely to ever enter production. For one, automakers seem to be moving on to street trucks as the hot new thing, but the bigger issue here is the powerplant. Hydrogen is simply not viable in the United States like Toyota wants it to be, and that doesn’t seem to be changing now matter how much the automaker beats this dead horse. The H2-Overlander will likely always be just a concept, albeit a concept with the neat party trick of pissing on your head and calling it a shower.
