Toyota Motor Corporation has announced that it will miss the race because a hydrogen-powered car fueled by liquid hydrogen, which was scheduled to participate in a race in Mie Prefecture this month, caused a hydrogen leak during a test drive and caused a vehicle fire.
According to the announcement, Toyota was scheduled to participate in the endurance race to be held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture on the 18th and 19th of this month, but a fire occurred during a test run on the 8th of this month.
The cause was that the connection of the pipe near the engine loosened due to the vibration of the vehicle, and hydrogen leaked and ignited, and the use of liquid hydrogen was not the direct cause.
There was also one driver in the vehicle, but there were no injuries and there was no major spread of fire because the supply of hydrogen was stopped due to safety features.
However, due to the lack of time for the vehicle to recover, he gave up participating in endurance races.
Tsuneharu Sato, Toyota's president-elect, commented, "The purpose of testing is to identify issues, and what is important is how to make the most of the issues next.