The Super Taikyu Series enables carmakers to trial new energy sources that could be the options for realizing a carbon-neutral society. In Round 2, newcomers Honda and Nissan joined in the cross-company efforts.
The significance of a multi-manufacturer co-challenge
President Sato
We believe there are many ways to achieve our ultimate goal of carbon neutrality.
We talk of a “multi-pathway” approach, which means preparing diverse options tailored to the needs of each country.
Instead of each company working alone, it’s crucial for the development and growth of Japan’s auto industry that we join forces to move quickly and test a wide range of options.
That’s precisely what we’re doing in Super Taikyu—pursuing diversity across the entire Japanese auto industry rather than the strategies of individual companies.
On the racetrack, Toyota’s #28 GR86, which runs on carbon-neutral fuel, has been locked in a fierce rivalry with the #61 Subaru BRZ. Subaru President Atsushi Osaki followed on from Sato’s comments.
President Osaki
As Mr. Sato said, when talking about carbon neutrality, people inevitably think of battery EVs, but it’s vital that we have a variety of options.
At Subaru, one of our iconic technologies is the horizontally-opposed engine, and when considering the future of this technology, I believe that carbon-neutral fuels can pave the way forward.
We want to help advance the auto industry through carbon-neutral fuels by sharing the data obtained from racing and various research efforts.
Despite the heated rivalry throughout last year’s races, we were committed to tackling carbon neutrality together as a co-challenge, and I feel we learned a great deal about the technical aspects of carbon-neutral fuels.
We want to continue sharing information as we push to make the technology ready for commercial release as soon as possible.
Given the many challenges, however, certain things are naturally not going to happen overnight, but we want to continue working together toward commercialization.
Since last year, Mazda has been racing a Mazda3 that uses a next-generation biodiesel fuel. President Moro also talked about his team’s efforts.
President Moro
The momentous challenge posed by carbon neutrality is breaking down the walls between carmakers. While this situation is completely unprecedented, we are all driven by the same desire to collaborate on achieving carbon neutrality. We are working to release our respective technologies and speed up the process as much as possible in Japan.
In our case, since we were already doing diesel, we decided to try biodiesel. Currently, we are using a very high-quality fuel from Euglena.
Going forward, we will continue with various trials to see how this would work with fuel derived from waste oil, and work to quash any potential issues before launching the product on the market.
I hope that by understanding each other’s technologies, we can quickly eliminate problems and move toward practical applications.