Skip to main content

Toyota’s FCV Plus concept comes to visit from a hydrogen future

Toyota is unveiling three concept cars at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, and one of them will be a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. Called the FCV Plus, it’s even more radical than Toyota’s production fuel-cell car, the Mirai.

Previewing a possible future where hydrogen is in more widespread use as a fuel source, the FCV Plus takes full advantage of the packaging flexibility of its powertrain. The one-box design looks like it came straight out of a science-fiction movie, and also makes for a more spacious cabin. It’s a design that wouldn’t be possible with an internal-combustion powertrain.

Toyota mounted the fuel-cell stack between the front wheels, and placed the tank for compressed hydrogen behind the rear seat. The car uses four wheel-mounted electric motors to further free up cabin space. Toyota says the components were placed in the chassis to optimize weight balance, and that the chassis itself is very rigid, but still lightweight.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

From the inside, the bubble-like shape and expansive glass should provide good outward visibility. The interior is also very minimal, with a head-up display performing most of the functions of traditional gauges, and a web-like material comprising the rear seats.

Toyota-FCV-Plus-Concept-0011
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Toyota wants the FCV Plus to be more than a car, though. The firm is emphasizing the concept’s ability to serve as an emergency backup power source for buildings. When stationary, the car can be fed hydrogen, and it can then generate electricity that can be discharged back out for non-automotive uses. The Toyota Mirai already has the capability to discharge electricity generated by its fuel-cell stack, and Honda has said it will offer a similar feature on its production fuel-cell car.

Toyota believes the FCV Plus will show the way to cars becoming an integral part of the energy infrastructure, by essentially turning them into mobile backup batteries. There’s been significant interest in this technology in Japan since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, for use with both battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell cars.

In addition to the FCV Plus, Toyota’s Tokyo Motor Show stand will also boast a small sports car concept called the S-FR, as well as the KIKAI, a concept designed to put a car’s inner workings on display.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2025 Awards
Top Tech of CES

Las Vegas is overrun. Every billboard in town is shouting about AI, hotel bar tops now sport a sea of laptops, and after hours The Strip is elbow to elbow with engineers toting yard-long beers.

That means CES, the year’s biggest tech bacchanalia, has come to town, and Digital Trends editors have spent the last four days frolicking among next year’s crop of incredible TVs, computers, tablets, and EVs. We’re in heaven.

Read more
Sony and Honda’s Afeela 1 EV makes more sense at CES than in the real world
Afeela 1 front quarter view.

The Sony car is almost here. After its creation via a joint venture with Honda in 2022 and two years’ worth of prototypes, the electronics giant’s Afeela brand is finally taking reservations for its first electric vehicle, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2026.

But will it be worth the wait? Coinciding with the opening of reservations, Sony Honda Mobility brought updated prototypes of the Afeela 1 (as it’s now officially known) to CES 2025, representing what California customers (Afeela is only taking reservations in that state) who put down a $200 refundable deposit can expect when they take delivery.

Read more
Bose wants to dominate car audio, and I heard its next-gen 3D automotive speakers
Bose logo on a speaker grille

Bose’s automotive audio business is huge, and it’s set to get even bigger. The company has been making big plays in car audio for some time now. The audio company works with premium brands like Porsche, building high-end speakers that allow drivers to experience high-quality audio on the road, whether they’re carting the family around in an Escalade or weaving around the highway (don’t do that) in a Porsche Macan.

But while it has a solid selection of audio brands under its belt, the world of personal audio is also evolving. Mercedes-Benz showed off its Dolby Atmos system at CES last year, and now, a year later, plenty of other brands are joining the trend. At CES 2025, Bose walked me through its current lineup of automotive audio products, as well as a sneak peek of what’s to come.
Immersive audio
The big trend in all areas of personal audio right now essentially boils down to supporting 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos. Consumer home theater products are increasingly offering up-firing and side-firing speakers that can bounce audio around the room to simulate height and surround effects, while headphone brands are increasingly developing spatialized audio tech that can convert stereo audio into simulated spatial audio.

Read more