Toyota and Hino collaborate on heavy-duty fuel cell truck

MANILA: Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Hino Motors, Ltd. (Hino) have decided to jointly produce a heavy-duty fuel cell truck and undertake practical measures through verification testing and other methods.

Toyota and Hino are willing to take constructive action to resolve global environmental concerns as one of the essential corporate responsibilities. Both car companies have announced aggressive plans to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050. They are also developing innovations for the widespread use of electric vehicles in today's society.

To attain a significant drop in CO2 emissions, major changes would be necessary for the environmental efficiency of heavy-duty trucks. These account for around 60% of the overall CO2 emission levels from various commercial vehicles in Japan.

The optimum powertrain needs to be implemented for commercial vehicle electrification. It helps guarantee both excellent environmental efficiency and feasibility as a commercial vehicle in terms of load capacity, cruising range, and other usage-dependent factors.

Typically, heavy-duty trucks are used for highway transport. Thus, they must have adequate load capacity and cruising range, as well as rapid refueling capacity. Because of this, fuel cell vehicles operating on hydrogen with its increased energy density are efficient.

In this joint development venture, the heavy-duty fuel cell truck is based on Hino Profia. Its development takes maximum advantage of the technologies that Toyota and Hino have fostered for several years. The chassis is specifically built with the ideal packaging for a fuel cell vehicle. Thus, actions are taken through extensive weight reduction to achieve an adequate load capacity.

The powertrain is fully equipped with two newly constructed Toyota fuel cell stacks for the next Toyota Mirai. It also includes a Hino-developed vehicle driving control, which incorporates heavy-duty hybrid vehicle technology. Moreover, the cruising range will be fixed at roughly 600 kilometers to meet high sustainable performance standards as well as convenience as a commercial vehicle.

Toyota and Hino have placed hydrogen as an essential source of energy for the future. Both car companies have been working together to develop new technologies along with innovating and spreading fuel cell vehicles for more than 15 years. This has occurred since their collaborative tests for fuel cell bus demonstration in 2003.

Moving forward, Toyota and Hino will continue to reinforce their relationship and boost efforts toward the fulfillment of a hydrogen society.