Toyota and Hino Motors are jointly developing a heavy-duty fuel cell truck and will proceed with initiatives to prove its practical use through a series of verification tests to aid the vehicle’s development.
Both companies have declared ambitious goals to reduce their CO2 emissions by 2050, so are taking proactive steps toward meeting this by developing electric vehicle technologies. In order to reach these CO2 emission targets, major environmental improvements need to be made to heavy-duty trucks, which currently make up 60% of total CO2 emissions from commercial vehicles in Japan.
In order to electrify commercial vehicles, the correct powertrain must be chosen to maximize output and to ensure that both the environmental performance and the practicality of the vehicle is the same as when using a combustion engine in terms of cruising range, load capacity, and other aspects.
Typically used for highway transportation, heavy-duty trucks must have a high cruising range and a fast-refueling capability, so producing vehicles capable of running on hydrogen fuel cells is a much more efficient and effective solution to combat greenhouse gas emissions.
The heavy-duty fuel truck is a joint project to be based on Hino Profia, and through the vehicle’s development both companies will take advantage of knowledge learned and technologies produced in previous years. A specially designed chassis will house a fuel cell that has been optimally packaged, along with a comprehensive weight reduction to ensure a sufficient load capacity is possible.
The powertrain will be equipped with two of Toyota’s fuel cell stacks, a newly developed component for the brand’s Mirai vehicle, alongside vehicle driving controls that apply heavy-duty hybrid vehicle technologies designed by Hino. The duo aims to achieve a cruising range of 600km (370 miles) for the truck.
Having worked in collaboration with each other for over 15 years, developing sustainable technologies and fuel-cell vehicles, both companies have underscored hydrogen as an important green energy source for the future.
