BANGKOK: ROOKIE Racing Co Ltd and Toyota Motor Corp will be demonstrating their hydrogen and carbon-neutral fuel race cars at the Idemitsu 1500 Super Endurance 2022 from Dec 17-19.

The cars - the ORC ROOKIE GR Corolla H2 concept, a hydrogen engine vehicle, and the ORC ROOKIE GR86 CNF Concept, a carbon-neutral fuel vehicle - will not run the entire 25-hour race at the Chang International Circuit.

Performing for the first time outside Japan, both cars will run for the first and last few hours of the race.

However, one of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Thailand’s vehicles is also going to run on carbon neutral fuels.

The participation by ROOKIE Racing and Toyota is to explore the use of clean energy options, including through the use of internal combustion engines.



Toyota president Akio Toyoda is the founder and team owner of ROOKIE Racing and participates under driver name “Morizo”.

ROOKIE Racing and Toyota participated in the Super Taikyu series in Japan midway through the 2021 season, with a hydrogen-powered Corolla.

From the 2022 season, in addition to the hydrogen engine Corolla, ROOKIE Racing and Toyota included the synthetic fuel GR86 to the team.

Toyota is committed to global carbon neutrality by 2050 in a practical and sustainable manner while also delivering Mobility for All, and Toyota in Asia, is fully aligned with these efforts.

Toyota is developing and bringing a full line-up of electrified vehicles to Asian markets to expand carbon neutral and carbon reducing options for the customer, including hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric, battery electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.

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