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The new Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) was launched in December 2020. Achieving a low-cost, high-performance FC stack is an important objective in FCEV development. At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure vehicle safety. This paper presents an overview of the safety requirements for onboard FC stacks. It also describes the simulation and evaluation methods for the following matters related to the FC stack. i) Impact force resistance: The FC stack was designed to prevent cell layer slippage due to impact. Constraint force between the cell layers is provided by the frictional force between the cells and an external constraint. A simulation of the behavior of the cell layers under impact force was developed. The impact force resistance was confirmed by an impact loading test. ii) Hydrogen safety: The FC stack was designed so that permeated hydrogen is ventilated and the hydrogen concentration is kept below the standard.

A next-generation plug-in hybrid system has been developed for the new Prius Prime. The objective of this development was to maximize the performance of the Toyota Hybrid System II (THS II) developed for the new fourth generation Prius HV, while achieving even better dynamic performance in electric vehicle (EV) mode. These objectives were accomplished by the adoption of new components and systems, as well as refinements to existing hybrid vehicle (HV) components. This paper describes the development of this new plug-in hybrid system.