On October 5, Japanese auto giant Toyota announced plans to team up with truck subsidiary Hino Motors to build a Class 8 fuel cell electric truck (FCET) for the North American market. The collaboration will see the newly developed Hino XL Series chassis paired with Toyota’s fuel cell technology to deliver extraordinary capability with zero emissions.
Glenn Ellis, the Senior Vice President – Customer Experience at Hino, said:
Expanding upon our proud heritage of the Hino powertrain, Toyota Fuel Cell Technology offers our customers a commercially viable, extended range, zero-emissions vehicle in the near term.
In 1997, Toyota broke new ground with the launching of the Prius gasoline-electric hybrid. Three years later, the company began testing a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, which hasn’t skyrocketed like a hybrid of battery-electric cars have. However, Toyota is one of several significant players who sees hydrogen as the answer to the electrification of 18-wheelers.
Tak Yokoo, Senior Executive Engineer – Toyota Research & Development, explained:
A fuel-cell-powered version of the Hino XL Series is a win-win for both customers and the community. It will be quiet, smooth, and powerful while emitting nothing but water. Toyota’s twenty-plus years of fuel cell technology combined with Hino’s heavy-duty truck experience will create an innovative and capable product.
This collaboration expands on the existing effort to build a 25-ton FCET for the Japanese market, announced on March 23. The first demonstration vehicle from that project is scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2021.
However, there’s no information about when the companies expect to launch the demonstration vehicle from this recent collaboration.
