Toyota is holding its ground on fuel cells as the solution to zero-emission transport.
The second most valuable automotive brand in the world has unveiled the second generation hydrogen fuel cell truck and has promised to increase production of Mirai passenger cars.
The new “Beta” version of its Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell Kenworth truck which has an estimated range of over 480km, is part of a program called Project Portal.
The Beta truck is the result of “Alpha” fuel cell truck testing since April 2017, where 16,000km of testing between Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in California has seen a sleeper cab added.
The Beta truck will start real-world “drayage” (short-haul) operations in autumn in the US.
The Toyota fuel cell (Kenworth) truck has a 36.2-tonne gross combined weight limit as a result of 500kW of power and nearly 1800Nm of torque generated by combining two Mirai fuel cell stacks and a 12kWh battery.
There are more than 16,000 diesel-powered trucks moving between Ports of Long Beach and LA, which, according to Toyota, is expected swell to 32,000 in the next decade.
Over 43,000 short-haul trucks operate in US ports.
Project Portal chief engineer Andrew Lund says the hydrogen truck program has proven itself.
“By evaluating the first truck in our test facilities and on the actual roads in the LA area, we made a list of improvements for the Beta truck build process and performance enhancements,” Lund explains.
“We needed to move beyond a proof of concept, which the first truck accomplished, to something that is not only better than the original but is also more commercially viable,” he says.
Toyota North America’s Electrified Vehicle & Technologies Office senior manager Craig Scott says the Beta truck has big potential.
“Our goal with the first truck was to see if it could be accomplished, and we did that,” Scott says.
“This time we’re looking at commercial viability.
We want to help make a difference—a significant difference when it comes to the air quality not only in the LA area, but across the US and around the globe,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Mirai chief engineer Yoshikazu Tanaka told Reuters production of the passenger car is ramping up.
“We’re going to shift from limited production to mass production, reduce the amount of expensive materials like platinum used in FCV components, and make the system more compact and powerful.”
Only 6000 cars have been sold since 2014 at a cost of $60,000 before incentives.
Range is also tipped to increase from about 500km out to 1000km by 2025.
Toyota currently makes 6.5 Mirais by hand per day (3000 cars per year), at an estimated cost of about US$11,000 to build each fuel cell stack.
A Tesla Model 3 battery is estimated to cost between US$6000-$9000, according to Forbes.
Production capacity, Toyota says, is expected to hit 30,000 annual units post-2020, when analysts predict stack costs to drop to US$8000.
