A Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is photographed in Berlin, Germany in August 2021. The Japanese automotive giant began work on the development of fuel-cell vehicles in 1992.
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automotive giant ToyotaAlong with three other partners, Light-Duty Fuel Cell will work on the development of electric trucks so that they can be launched in Japan next year.
In a statement on Tuesday, Toyota said it would cooperate with isuzu, hino motors and the Commercial Japan Partnership Technology Corporation on the project. Both Isuzu and Hino made statements similar to those of Toyota on their respective websites.
A possible use case for fuel cell vehicles could be in the supermarket and convenience store area, where Toyota said that light-duty trucks need to travel “long distances over extended hours to perform multiple delivery operations a day”. “
The company has also listed rapid refueling as a requirement for the vehicles operating in this segment.
Use of “FC. [fuel cell] The technology, which runs on high energy density hydrogen and emits zero CO2 while driving, is known to be effective under such operating conditions,” it added.
According to the company, the market has been introduced after January 2023, with light-duty fuel-cell trucks being used at distribution sites in Fukushima Prefecture and other projects in Tokyo.
Hino Motors is part of the Toyota Group, while CJPT was founded in 2021 by Isuzu, Toyota and Hino.
Toyota began work on developing fuel-cell vehicles—where hydrogen from a tank combines with oxygen to produce electricity—back in 1992.
In 2014, it launched the Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell sedan. The business says its fuel cell vehicles emit “nothing but water” from the tailpipes.
Along with the Mirai, Toyota has had a hand in the development of large hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. These include a bus called the Sora and prototypes of heavy-duty trucks. Along with fuel cells, Toyota is looking at using hydrogen in internal combustion engines.
also seen on tuesday suzukiDaihatsu, Toyota and CJPT announced plans to market battery electric mini-commercial vehicles in the 2023 fiscal year.
“Mini-Commercial Van BEV [battery electric vehicle] Developed by these four companies will be used by partners in social implementation projects in Fukushima Prefecture and Tokyo,” the announcement said.
Daihatsu is a subsidiary of Toyota. Till 31st March 2022, Toyota held a 4.9 per cent stake in Suzuki.
While Toyota is well known for its hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, it is also striving to foray into the increasingly competitive battery-electric market, where automakers prefer Tesla And Volkswagen Struggling for the position.
It hasn’t been without its challenges. In June 2022, Toyota released Safety recall for over 2,000 all-electric SUVs, bZ4X.