Toyota
Toyota has been a partner of Energy Observer’s journey into the future since its christening in Paris on 6 July 2017.
At the time, Toyota France became Energy Observer’s mobility partner, providing hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at each stage of its Tour de France.
Mid-2018, the partnership was raised to a higher level when Toyota Motor Europe stepped in - now an official partner of Energy Observer, with Toyota providing mobility solutions for all future stopovers.
Toyota keys handling
As a global mobility company, Toyota is a pioneer and leader of environmentally friendly technologies. Toyota’s global environmental roadmap, “Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050”, includes objectives to minimise the environmental impact of vehicles on society throughout their lifecycle.
Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) technology is a pillar of this approach, which started over 25 years ago with the introduction of Prius.
Today, worldwide sales of electrified vehicles have reached 21 million units. This momentum is driven by the product strength of the highly diversified electrified range, which accounts for around 66% of total sales in Europe.
Leveraging on its hybrid heritage, Toyota pioneered the automotive market once again in 2014 with the introduction of the Mirai, the world's first commercial car equipped with fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) technology.
In 2019, in preparation of Energy Observer’s 2020 journey crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Energy Observer and Toyota have worked closely together to introduce Toyota’s leading fuel cell technology in the Energy Observer. Toyota Europe’s Technical Centre has especially developed a fuel cell system, using components first introduced in the Toyota Mirai and fitted it into a compact module suitable for marine applications - delivering more power and efficiency, but also high reliability.