Game-Changer: Will Toyota’s Water-Powered Engine Replace EVs?

Toyota is developing a car that can run on water. Yes, you read that correctly. Instead of gasoline, water will be used in the fuel tank.

This innovation could potentially disrupt the entire automotive industry, including companies like Elon Musk’s Tesla, which prides itself on creating eco-friendly vehicles. Toyota’s new combustion engine is designed to be exceptionally eco-friendly, utilizing water in its fuel tank and emitting water from its exhaust, while still delivering the power of a traditional petrol or electric engine.

The burning question now is: how is Toyota achieving this feat of burning water in its engine? Have they discovered a unique property of water that has eluded other major companies? Introducing water into an engine or fuel tank is catastrophic, causing rapid corrosion of the metal components. So, how does Toyota plan to turn water from an engine’s enemy into its greatest ally?

Furthermore, why hasn’t Tesla emerged as the electric vehicle (EV) industry leader today? The reality is that Toyota introduced the world’s first successful hybrid electric car back in 1997, preceding Tesla’s prominence in the EV market. So, why hasn’t Toyota taken the lead in the trend toward water-based engines, and why is it now striving to pioneer this technology? Is there something Toyota perceives that even Elon Musk, with his visionary insight, has overlooked? Understanding Toyota’s mindset holds the key to unraveling these questions. Without delay, let’s delve into how Toyota plans to revolutionize the automotive industry with its water-based engine.

The reason why Toyota a leader in EVs didn’t continue its EV engine

So, look friends, Toyota is a company that doesn’t become part of a crowd like other companies. Rather, it sets the trend itself. The trend that big companies follow. And that’s why they want to become the trendsetter of the EV industry. And their major focus is innovation, innovation, and only innovation. Because of this innovative approach, in the 1990s, the whole world was not even thinking about EVs, But Toyota launched the world’s first hybrid electric car.

Toyota Prius, and set a trend for EVs in the same car market. In fact, some experts believe that if this car hadn’t been so successful in the late 90s, then maybe in the early 2000s, Tesla wouldn’t have had that initial push. Anyway, whatever may be the case, but somehow, Toyota itself wasn’t happy with its success. America, which is home to big car giants like Tesla, Ford, Chevrolet, and Fiat, is also considered to be a more reliable outsider than Toyota in today’s history.

In fact, this is also the reason why one out of every five off-road vehicles in America is Toyota. Now, when the Toyota Prius was launched, and both its positive and negative feedback were received worldwide, then they saw some concerning flaws in their hybrid electric engine. And they stopped producing their EVs But what were those flaws that could not be fixed with minor modifications? Well, actually, there were multiple flaws.

EVs ( Electric Vehicle ) and their issue

When Toyota studied its EV model, Prius, in detail, they saw two major problems in their model.

First, EVs are considered eco-friendly, and they emit zero carbon emissions, but the electricity that comes from the charging stations is burned by coal, diesel, and natural gas. That means, technically, whenever EVs are on the road, they are also polluting the environment.

Secondly, the batteries that are used in EVs are mostly lithium, cobalt, or nickel, and these metals are extracted to make just one battery.

So much fossil fuel has to be burned to make two normal EVs. You may not know this, but an electric car has also released 13,608 kilograms of carbon dioxide gas before reaching the showroom. Which can kill 22,000 people every year. All in all, Toyota realized that because of these flaws, the main purpose of EVs is being beaten. And they are just wasting these rare materials for their comfort. As a result, they took the development of EVs on the back foot, and instead, they started focusing more on improving the cars with combustion engines. 

Starting with the choice of fuel. Basically, from the very beginning, Toyota knew very well that the fuel you use matters more than the engine. How many chemical bonds are there in a fuel? How many of those bonds can break easily and release trapped energy? And how many of those bonds can break in half and turn into carbon pollutants? It is very important to take all these things into consideration. Now, in such a situation, you all must know this, the molecule that can make the most bonds, which molecule, which element is it?

Well, carbon, right? That means you can use ethanol, you can use kerosene, you can use CNG, when you burn them, in some form, carbon dioxide will be released. So in such a situation, what should we do? Well, there can be an idea.

hydrogen engine and its complexities

What if we use hydrogen, H2? Because a hydrogen molecule has two hydrogen atoms, and because hydrogen molecules are small, they can be packed tightly in a fuel tank.

That means, let’s say, you can fill a fuel tank with 24 bonds with only 4 petrol molecules, but with 100 hydrogen molecules with one bond, then ultimately, you have 4 bonds. You will have 4  extra bonds of energy. Moreover, because the bonds between hydrogen are powerful when they break, they produce 3 times more energy than petrol. And in return, carbon dioxide is also not released. So all in all, it’s a big win-win situation. Toyota’s same hydrogen engine, and our detailed explanation video on it, both these things already exist.

But as I said in that video, that hydrogen-powered engine also had its own problems. Hydrogen is a promising fuel, as well as a highly inflammable gas. That is, to take it in your car in a big tank like this, means, you are sort of taking a moving time bomb with you. And such hydrogen-powered, let’s say, 100 cars, if they get stuck in traffic like Mumbai, then just assume that it is not traffic, but a ticking atom bomb. And that’s why, initially, Toyota also had to scrap the idea of this hydrogen-powered engine.

But eventually, they returned to the drawing board once again. But this time, with a new mindset. Look, Toyota had come to know that to make eco-friendly cars, apart from fossil fuels, if anything else can work, then it is only hydrogen.

So, what if we try to fix the problems of this hydrogen engine instead of starting from zero? Yes, pure hydrogen is inflammable. But if we try to make this hydrogen in an impure form, then we will have a problem. If we put hydrogen in a fuel tank, then it will not be inflammable. Right? And this very idea gave birth to the concept of a water engine. Now, friends, we will go further in the explanation. But let’s realize this thing here.

And personally, this is one of the most important messages for me for all of you through this Article. Look, we get stuck anywhere in life. Like, Toyota got stuck.

So, we should always fall back on first principles thinking. First principles thinking means identifying the problem from the root. So, as Toyota understood here, the problem here is not hydrogen engines, but the inflammable nature of hydrogen. if we can tweak this nature in some way, then we will be able to get the best out of both worlds.

And such creative ideas will usually come to you only from first-principle thinking. Otherwise, during times of problems, our minds always get stressed out and see an escape route. And then we drop that idea. So, now let’s move ahead in the concept of a water engine. So, no matter how clean the water is, if we look at it from the perspective of hydrogen, then technically, it has the impurity of oxygen. This impurity will save it from explosiveness. Now, Toyota finally got to know what to make of it. Except, again, there was a small problem.

Earlier water engines and their problems

When they were doing primary research in this direction, they saw that there are already some people who have driven cars using water as a fuel. But that car is now a problem because of politics and impractical designs, which never became mainstream.

Actually, in the 1980s, to avoid increasing fuel prices in the US, a small American inventor, Stanley Meyers, while looking for an alternative option for petrol, designed a car that could run on water. According to Meyers, this car was capable of running up to 180 kilometers.

In just 4 liters of water. But as soon as Meyers put this idea in front of the world, he started getting threats from many oil companies. And in the meantime, in 1998, when he was talking to some investors about his invention in a hotel, suddenly, his throat started to dry up. He was quickly seen running out of the hotel, and before anyone could understand anything, he died on the spot. And you know what’s even more shocking?

A few days after his death, his car and all the designs associated with it mysteriously disappeared from Meyers’ garage. It is said that if those designs had existed today, then maybe EVs would never have become mainstream. This is almost the same thing as when Toyota Prius was launched. So if this water-engine car had become mainstream, then maybe Prius would have been the first and last EV that would have created buzz in the mainstream media.

Anyway, once this water engine was gone, many other people in the world also tried to make water engines. But they had no luck. In 2018, some engineering students from Nagpur, India put water in a Maruti 800. They put water in the fuel tank of the Maruti 800 and mixed it with calcium carbide. And they used a chemical reaction to make the car run on the flammable acetylene gas.

And there are many other variants of water engines like this. But all of them had some fundamental problems. And these are the three major problems. The first problem is that the combination of water and the fuel tank is deadly. Because the oxygen in the water, the contact of the fuel tanks made of metal, starts to rot as soon as it enters the fuel tank. And in just a few days, the condition of the fuel tank of your car becomes something like this.

The second problem, by dissolving calcium carbide in water, along with acetylene gas, calcium oxide also forms, which is stored in the fuel tank and clogs it. And the third biggest problem was related to acetylene. Acetylene is more corrosive than water. It is also more unstable than hydrogen gas. And on top of that, it is also poisonous.

That means, all in all, the engine of the Maruti 800 does not know how exactly they used water. But the ones we know about today, their designs are quite impractical.

Now, in this case, why did Toyota take the risk of extracting hydrogen from water? Especially knowing that hydrogen and water engines both have their problems. Well, here, Toyota’s engineers made a wonderful joke. They again went to their drawing boards. Then, all the engines we have seen so far, like EVs, hydrogen engines, and impractical water engines, they took all of them off that board. And then brainstormed ideas. 

And finally, they made such an engine that could mix and match all of their positive attributes and solve their mutual shortcomings. Let me explain this.

how did Toyota make ITS wats engine

Look, what happens in the fuel stations of hydrogen vehicles? They are in a way an extension of EVs’ charging stations. Instead of directly giving electricity to the vehicle, they instead give electricity to the water. And then, through the electrolysis process, water, hydrogen, and oxygen are split into two parts. And lastly, this separated hydrogen is then filled into the tank of the vehicles. Now, as we discussed earlier, a tank filled with hydrogen is like a bomb. So, here, Toyota thought,  why don’t we directly fit the entire setup of the hydrogen fuel station directly into the vehicle? This would mean that instead of the inflatable hydrogen in the fuel tank, we can keep plain water.

And then, for electrolysis, there is enough battery in the vehicle. Through all of this, the on-the-spot hydrogen gas that will be produced will be able to run without breaking and without damaging the combustion engine. And as far as the fuel tank is concerned, without any mechanical movement in it, its inner surface can be coated with a water-resistant material. 

So, cool, right? You can see how Toyota chose their strong points from all the previous engines and with their help, overcame their mutual flaws. This is the DNA of Toyota. It is its identity.

WHY TOYOTA ( OR JAPAN IN GENERAL) is an inspiration to the world

Because during World War II, Japan, which looked small like peanuts, was destroyed by an advanced country like the US.

But then, as soon as World War II ended, by improving its mistakes, Japan and its companies were nurtured by the US for many years. One of these companies was Toyota. Yes, Toyota. This company, which used to make handlooms at one time, was taught to make cars in the 1950s and was built by the US. Now, why am I telling you this backstory? Well, simply because any country, any company, any person, when they are at their lowest point, they ask themselves the main question where do they have to go from here? And how do they have to go? And why do they have to go?

When in 1991, our country ( India) had the money to survive for just 3 weeks, we also asked ourselves the same question. And look, today we are here. Now, in the 1950s, when the Japanese asked themselves this question, they had three options. First, to become an agriculture-based economy like India and export grains. Second, to earn money by selling raw oil like Arabs. And third, to help them in the US wars like Pakistan and get their monthly salary from it.

Now, as you can see, the first option among these was not possible. Where will a country as small as a peanut grow a peanut? There is not even that much space. Then, the problem with the second option was that in Japan, natural resources like oil, coal, iron ore, and copper, all of these are not enough for the Japanese people. What will they export? And the problem with the third option was that their country had just undergone the consequences of war.

So, going back to US is simply suicide. So, finally, Japan thought that if we don’t have anything that is naturally valuable, then we will make such man-made things that other countries will invite us to their country and say, please make us this too. That is, Japan celebrated its innovative mind.

It made Japan sellable, marketable products. This is the reason that when we say that Toyota or in general Japan has made something new, then you instantly become curious. So, yeah, hopefully, you will get some interesting ideas for your life. Now, the only question left here is can this insane water engine of Toyota replace the EV industry? Especially in today’s time when EV cars enjoy a good market share. Well, at this moment, this water-powered engine of Toyota Only its prototype has been released.

Can the Toyota engine truly destroy the EV market? Is it that perfect is at a conceptual stage?

And that’s why we don’t have the in-depth details to say for sure. But if we purely judge based on the prototype, then before it gets into the market, Toyota will have to solve its two major problems at least immediately. Firstly, the battery in this engine splits the water with its electrical energy.

And then when the hydrogen generated from the water rotates the tire, technically that electrical energy converts into kinetic energy. Then these rotating tires, like an electrical generator, again convert that kinetic energy into electrical energy. And with this electrical energy, the battery gets charged. Now, here you can see that until the battery is charged, Toyota doesn’t install any solar panels in their cars. It becomes a perpetual engine, which is against the laws of physics. Secondly, if we look at it in terms of purely energy output, then by burning 1 kilogram of hydrogen gas, about 121 megajoules of energy is generated.

But on the other hand, to make that 1 kilogram of gas through water electrolysis, it takes 180 megajoules of energy. That is, the amount of energy we are getting from hydrogen, we are spending much more energy on making it at this point. Now, at least for this particular problem, there is an electrolyzer company in Australia that has recently made an electrolyzer that generates hydrogen gas with 95% efficiency.

So, there is still a big hope. But how does Toyota as a company deal with its first problem? And how affordable will its water engine be to the common people? These factors ultimately decide how strong their water engine will hit the EVs. However, the potential is there. Especially if a giant company like Toyota backs this technology. Anyway, you know what friends, like Japan, there is another country which is trying to make air travel more profitable. 

I am talking about the USA, and more so, its space agency NASA commercial guided venture. NASA launched a plane in 2028, which can reduce the cost of air travel by 30 times with just a simple change. Now, what is exactly that change? And what is NASA doing in the domain of making planes that launch rockets and spacecraft? Is it forced to get into this domain? I have explained the answers to all these questions in detail with the entire concept in Other Article, which you should not miss at all because this technology will blow your mind.