Toyota and Hino work on a fuel-cell truck

Toyota Motor Corporation and Hino Motors Ltd will jointly develop a heavy-duty fuel cell truck with the intention of getting it into production. This announcement was made on March 23 in Toyota City.

Both manufacturers believe the fuel cell technology represent the optimum powertrain for the electrification of commercial vehicles, as it ensures both environmental performance and practicality for a business vehicle, in terms of cruising range, load capacity and other commercially relevant aspects of operation.

Optimized Hino Profia

The heavy-duty fuel cell truck being developed is based on the Hino Profia. 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 is equipped with two Toyota fuel cell stacks newly developed for Toyota’s next generation Mirai sedan. It also includes elements of vehicle driving control applied through heavy-duty hybrid vehicle technologies developed by Hino.

The Toyota-Hino FCV truck will use two Toyota fuel cell stacks developped for Toyota’s next generation 2021 Mirai sedan

According to the manufacturers, cruising range will be set at approximately 600 kilometres, aiming to meet high standards in both environmental performance and practicality as a commercial vehicle.

Text: Luc Gagné
Photos: Toyota