Toyota Agrees to Develop Class 8 Fuel Cell Electric Truck
Toyota and Hino Trucks have agreed to jointly develop a Class 8 fuel cell electric truck for the North American market. With a minimum gross vehicle weight rating of 33,001 pounds, these are the biggest type of semi-trucks you’ll find on the roads.
Toyota and Hino’s energy-focused partnership stretches back nearly 20 years, having jointly demonstrated a fuel cell bus back in 2003. Earlier this year, they announced their intent to build a zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered, heavy-duty fuel cell truck, though at the time the focus was on the Japanese market.
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Out of that partnership came the Hino XL Series chassis, powered by Toyota’s fuel cell technology. Now the companies say they will leverage it to deliver Class 8 truck capability in North America without harmful emissions. The first demonstration vehicle is expected to arrive in the first half of 2021.
“It will be quiet, smooth and powerful while emitting nothing but water,” said Tak Yokoo, senior executive engineer for Toyota Research and Development. “Toyota’s twenty plus years of fuel cell technology combined with Hino’s heavy-duty truck experience will create an innovative and capable product.”
According to the EPA, transportation was responsible for 28 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2018 — more than any other sector. Within that sector, medium- and heavy-duty trucks accounted for nearly a quarter of emissions.
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Toyota intends to demonstrate that hydrogen-powered fuel cell trucks, with their zero emissions, extended range, and fast charging times, are a commercially viable alternative to traditional trucks. But for now, they’ll have to be restricted to operating in the California area, as the hydrogen refueling infrastructure across the rest of North America is lacking.
Nonetheless, fuel cell trucks may be the key to meeting the EPA’s upcoming Cleaner Trucks Initiative, which plans to update NOx emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks. NOx, or nitrogen oxide, is poisonous and linked to significant health impacts. Heavy-duty trucks are the biggest contributors to NOx emissions, in large part because of their reliance on diesel.
California’s South Coast Air Basin will require a NOx reduction of 70 percent from 2019 levels by 2023, and is working hard to push nationwide rules because 60 percent of truck travel in the state is from trucks registered in other states. Even if it fails in that endeavor, and California remains alone with stricter regulations, manufacturers will still need to build more efficient trucks. Toyota and Hino’s Class 8 fuel cell electric truck seems like a good solution.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.