Ricardo has provided technical assistance on Toyota’s Project Portal for the design of a heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell system for class 8 truck use at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California in the USA. The supplier offered its expertise on areas including design and vehicle build and is also currently supporting on-road testing.
Support in systems integration and packaging has looked at the fuel cells, power electronics, hydrogen tanks, cooling systems, batteries, electric motors and transmission. Many of the ancillary systems that are traditionally driven by the engine were also electrified, including the air compressor, power steering and HVAC system, the controls of which required integration into the vehicle’s J1939 CANbus.
Chris Brockbank, VP of vehicle engineering at Ricardo, said, “Ricardo was honored to collaborate with Toyota on this high-profile fuel cell demonstration project. Heavy-duty trucks are generally not amenable to the types of electrification used for passenger cars and other light duty vehicles, due to the size and cost of the required battery systems.
For this reason, Project Portal provides an exciting opportunity to evaluate a further, practical option for a heavy truck ZEV application. We look forward to working with Toyota in the completion of the in-port trials, and to seeing the results of the project which, I believe, may well inform the future vision of heavy-duty transportation.”
May 9, 2017
