MPalmer

https://www.yotatech.com/articles/uk...ussian-forces/

A wrecked Toyota Mirai's hydrogen fuel cell and some other parts allegedly made for a highly effective way to take out a potential Russian ammo depot.


NOTE: This post and the article's title were updated in an attempt to clarify that "hydrogen bomb" was used to describe the fuel-cell vehicle's energy source, not a thermonuclear explosion.

2ND NOTE: YotaTech is a ClubLexus sister site, owned and operated by the team who runs this site. Just in case you were nervous about the link.

mmarshall

Looks to me like Russian propaganda. If the Ukrainians had actually used a nuclear device, even a low-grade one, it would be front page news all over the world.

The Ukrainians DID recently strike inside Russia, but with conventional drones and other weapons.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

why would the russians make propaganda about a loss?

? it wasn't a nuclear device, it was the hydrogen fuel cell from a toyota mirai.

mmarshall

As of now (although this could change) I don't see any other stories from credible sources confirming it.

IF true, however, It could have been a very low-grade device, using just the small amount of hydrogen in the Mirai....although that could have caused detectible radiation. I'll just consider the whole story a question mark for now.

geko29

Bit is correct. This is not the type of Hydrogen bomb you're thinking of. There is no fissible material. It is a traditional explosive, using the volatility of hydrogen gas as the fuel. I suspect it was designed as a Thermobaric explosive, but don't have enough information to confirm that.


Mod hat on: You two have not taken it there (thank you), but this is a topic that can very easily devolve into debate territory. This is everyone's one and only warning. Keep the discussion on the novelty of the use of a Mirai in this fashion, or the thread will be immediately closed.

LH1

I would suggest closing it now. It will inevitably go down the drain.

MPalmer

Sorry for the confusion. I was semi-delirious last night when I finally got to publish this.

I've updated the thread and the article itself to reflect that hydrogen bomb was a reference to the Toyota Mirai's hydrogen fuel cell allegedly being used to make a non-nuclear weapon to fight the Russians.

LeX2K

Mirai owners are relieved to learn their cars are not a thermonuclear bomb but simply a thermobaric one.

mmarshall

Thank you for clarifying that. That makes a lot more sense.

mmarshall

OK.....the OP story now seems credible. Other media-sources are starting to verify it.....here is one of them:

https://www.theautopian.com/ukrainia...sian-position/

MPalmer

I wouldn't go that far... i think most sites are going off of that one source, which is an English-language news site based in Ukraine. I also added a note to the end of our article identifying the source's context and noting that major media outlets have not independently verified the news. Still, according to the very through writeup on Euromaidan Press, this type of weapon -- a mixture of leftover parts from vehicles like the Mirai and even Tesla EVs -- have been relatively common over the last 18 months.

This story appears to be gaining traction mostly among automotive enthusiast news outlets specifically because of the visual/notion of a wrecked Toyota being turned into a weapon of war.

The interesting context there is that it's actually very common for civilian vehicles to end up in various wartorn places. For example, here's a Ford SuperDuty towing a Howizter that we wrote about on a different ClubLexus sister site: https://www.ford-trucks.com/articles...m777-howitzer/

Oro

Toyota needs to combine the Mirai and the Hilux. It will be marketing gold…

situman

Another engine for Toyota to recall due to it blowing up.