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Toyota High-Pressure Hydrogen Tanks Are Safe, According to Japanese Law

When it comes to fuel containers holding a gas at a 700-bar pressure, there’s no room for mistakes. You’ve probably seen what happens when a tire inflated at around 3 bar explodes. Now multiply that by 233 and add a flammable gas to the equation.
Toyota FCV underpinings 1 photo
Photo: Toyota
The upcoming Toyota FCV (or Mirai as it’s expected to be called) has actually two such pressurized tanks filled with hydrogen that is needed for the fuel cell to create electricity.

Thou shall not be afraid of them though, as Toyota said not even a bullet can penetrate the thick walls of the tanks. Only a .50 cal managed to puncture it, and then the gas only escaped without too much drama.

Still, you can’t put a product on sale with only some backyard testing in the weekend involving a bottle of liquor and a shotgun. The Japanese law requires all pressure gas containers and accessories to be type-certified and made available for official safety inspections during the manufacturing process.

And until now, Toyota’s hydrogen tanks also had to undergo a further inspection before installed in the car, which was kinda slowing down the manufacturing process.

Now, however, the company has been officially approved to self-inspect its tanks. Toyota meets all the 194 requirements and demonstrated an appropriate high level of quality management, proving its worthy of doing the job itself to facilitate the assembly process of its all-new hydrogen fuel cell car.

And because no third party is involved in the process, the FCV’s price is also expected to drop a bit, bringing the car closer to becoming popular in the near future.
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