24 March 2020

TOYOTA HINO: Joint development of fuel-cell truck

Toyota Motors and Hino Motors have agreed to jointly develop a heavy-duty fuel cell truck and to conduct testing that leads towards its practical application.

 

Both Toyota and Hino have declared ambitious goals to reduce CO2 emissions by 2050 and continue to develop electrified vehicle technologies for widespread use.

To achieve broader reductions in CO2 emissions, major improvements will be required in the environmental performance of heavy-duty trucks, which account for about 60 per cent of the total CO2 emissions from commercial vehicles operating in Toyota and Hino’s home market of Japan.

Toyota Truck

For the electrification of commercial vehicles, the optimum powertrain must be adopted to ensure both environmental performance and practicality as a business vehicle, in terms of cruising range, load capacity and other commercially relevant aspects of operation.

Heavy-duty trucks are typically used for inter-city transportation and are required to have sufficient cruising range and load capacity as well as fast refuelling capability. Fuel cell vehicles that run on hydrogen with its high energy density are considered effective for the purpose.

The heavy-duty fuel cell truck being developed is based on the Hino Profia – a truck that has been in production by Hino since 1981. The chassis is specially designed, with the optimum packaging for a fuel cell vehicle and steps are being taken through comprehensive weight reduction, to ensure a sufficient load capacity.

The powertrain, equipped with two Toyota fuel cell stacks newly developed for Toyota’s next generation Mirai saloon, includes elements of vehicle driving control applied through heavy-duty hybrid vehicle technologies developed by Hino.

Cruising range will be set at approximately 370 miles, aiming to meet high standards in both environmental performance and practicality as a commercial vehicle.

Toyota and Hino have identified hydrogen as an important future energy source and have worked together on the development and proliferation of fuel cell technologies since conducting joint trials of a fuel cell bus in 2003.  In the coming years, Toyota and Hino will strengthen their partnership and accelerate efforts toward the realisation of a hydrogen society.

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  • Toyota
  • Hydrogen Cell

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