Yamaha will SAVE the V8 by Ditching Gasoline...

Yamaha has had an enormous impact in the development of internal combustion engines. Their success in motorsports, on land, and in the water is nothing short of incredible. Even Ford and Volvo have them to thank for their genius designs. But none are more grateful than Toyota's luxury arm Lexus. Since the first generation GS, rest in peace, Yamaha has had a role in solidifying Lexus as a reliable luxury and high performance alternative to the Germans. Yamaha is responsible for co-developing the 3.0L 2JZ inline-6 seen in the IS and GS300s, the 4.8L 1LR GUI V10 seen in the Lexus LFA is one of the most iconic and most incredible sounding engines ever witnessed in a production car. Which was of course designed and tuned by Yamaha. For over a decade since the introduction of the IS-F, Lexus has been employing the glorious Yamaha designed 5.0L 2UR GSE V8 which the RCF IS500, LC500, and GSF employ. But with governmental regulations around the world cracking down on emissions, Yamaha's days of legendary engine production could be in the past. They've set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 and have already announced several electric scooters and electric crate motors which are capable of creating some of the fastest hypercars ever seen. Thankfully, Yamaha isn't giving up on keeping their greatest achievements viable in a carbon neutral future. Yamaha is taking the legendary 2UR GSE 5.0L Lexus exclusive V8 and giving it new life in a world dominated by electrification. We're over at Best Car Web, Japanese scoop site and magazine, Yamaha wants to make the 5.0L V8 viable by replacing gasoline with hydrogen. We're going to talk a little bit about how they're doing this, but is it even possible? If you're new to the channel, my name's Kirk, I talk about Japanese and Korean cars. I'm also traveling in the near near future to test drive the Lexus LX600 and the Acura MDX Type S, so if you're into that sort of thing, make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon. Let's talk about Yamaha, they're always a hot topic on the channel. I think it's because so many people have great memories about Yamaha, this tiny, well, should I say their motorsports end is a little bit tiny, but they're such a big company producing some of the best sound equipment out there as well as the best instruments of the world and many other things. So a little bit more about this 5.0L V8, at least the gasoline engine that we all know and love, it has an output of 472 horsepower and a little over 390 pound feet of torque. So if it runs on hydrogen, that means it's a carbon neutral engine. It does not generate CO2, it does produce other emissions, I believe nitrous oxide is one of them, and because of this, it could be a viable option in a carbon neutral future. Another benefit of converting this to hydrogen is that it is a lot cheaper than actually producing a hydrogen fuel cell stack. And with current technology on hydrogen fuel cell stacks, they need platinum. So until we can figure out how to use cheaper and more widely available metals on it, maybe a hydrogen engine is a better way to go than fuel cells. So Yamaha is still modifying the 5.0L V8 to find the most efficient hydrogen burning version of it. They've replaced cylinder heads, injectors, and exhaust manifolds, let alone all the modifications to the fuel system they've needed to make for hydrogen instead of gasoline. Work on hydrogen engines has been going on since 1970, with Tokyo City University. Around 2000, BMW and Mazda in Japan focused on the development of hydrogen engines and announced hydrogen engine vehicles. BMW discontinued development in 2009, but BMW is still working on fuel cell stack development, and Mazda has frozen the development of hydrogen rotary engines. But a zero carbon emission engine, even though it sounds amazing, we still don't know how to make it commercially viable, and here are the reasons. The combustion speed is overwhelmingly faster than gasoline, 7.6 times faster, and the risk of plaque and abnormal combustion is very high. And sadly, in order to reduce the amount of plaque due to the increased combustibility of hydrogen, they've had to reduce the output of the 5.0L V8. And because the energy density of hydrogen is about a quarter of what it is versus gasoline, you have to have a tank that is about 3-4 times the size of a gasoline tank to get the same amount of range. And lastly, infrastructure. That's why fuel cell cars are more prevalent, that's why hydrogen engines also have never taken off, it's because where are you going to find hydrogen? If you're in Southern California, maybe you have a decent chance, maybe you live close to hydrogen fueling stations, most people around the world are thousands of miles away from the nearest hydrogen fueling station. South Korea wants to change that, Japan wants to change that, parts of Europe want to change that, and let's not forget that Yamaha is not alone in this endeavor. They're also working with Kawasaki to build hydrogen engines. Hybridization is still on the table for both of them, and hydrogen power, something Kawasaki's been working on for a while now, is now joining forces with Yamaha, and they'll be working together to develop hydrogen engines for motorcycle models. Which hydrogen motorcycles is a tough sell to me because the tank sizes, you're limited to a small tank, simple as that. Cars you can put tanks underneath the seats, you can put it in the middle tunnel, like we see on the Toyota Mirai, and underneath the trunk. Like there's a lot of different places you can put tanks on a car, it's a much bigger platform. On a motorcycle, is the tank a part of the frame? It's hard to say, they got a lot of stuff to figure out here with hydrogen motorcycles. In the meantime I just don't see how hydrogen engines are going to be viable in today's day and age. Really, the only way I see hydrogen engines being relevant in the future is in motorsports. Toyota is already playing with it in their Super Taikyu series Corolla sport car, it's a modified 3-cylinder that you see in the GR Yaris to run on hydrogen. So without hybridization, the internal combustion engine, even this 5.0L V8, don't have a bright future. I think hydrogen fuel cell stacks will continue to develop with efficiency and power, making internal combustion engines obsolete 10-20 years from now, let alone battery electric vehicles. Let's say 30 years from now hydrogen is just as widely available as gasoline at any sort of gas station. Would you be interested in having a 5.0L V8 internal combustion engine, if available, versus a fuel cell vehicle or a plug-in battery electric vehicle? I'll see you guys in the next video, there's a lot of stuff coming at the beginning of this year. Happy New Year by the way, 2022 is going to be the best year ever, hopefully we get some more Yamaha fun news along the way. I'll see you in the next one, and peace out.