In mid-2008, the US Department of Energy, Savannah River National Laboratory (SNRL), and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) approached Toyota, to participate in a collaborative evaluation of the real-world driving range of the FCHV-adv. So, at the end of June two Toyota fuel cell vehicles, carrying engineers from the Toyota Technical Center, SRNL and NREL, completed a 331.5 mile (533 km) extended round-trip drive between Torrance and San Diego.

The drive began at Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc (TMS) headquarters in Torrance, traveled north to Santa Monica, turned south to San Diego, and finally retraced the route back to Torrance. The route encompassed a variety of drive cycles, including high-speed highway driving, moderate highway driving, and stop-go traffic on surface streets, in an effort to mimic a typical commute. Each fuel cell vehicle was fitted with a data collection system that captured vehicle speed, distance traveled, hydrogen consumed, hydrogen tank pressure, temperature, and internal tank volume.