Toyota Sees Role for Hydrogen Power in Heavy-Duty Truck Segment

With the Mirai model, Toyota is now one of three automakers selling fuel-cell vehicles in the U.S. market. Now, the automaker is looking into potential heavier duty applications, including the possibility of using hydrogen to fuel a fleet of zero-emissions trucks.

Such an approach could create a vast new market for hydrogen technology – and solve the problem that clean air proponents have had trying to figure out how to clean up truck emissions. Because of their size and weight, as well as range issues, current battery technology does not appear to be a good fit for large, long-haul trucks.

"Toyota has long maintained that hydrogen fuel cell technology could be a zero emission solution across a broad spectrum of vehicle types," the Japanese maker said in a brief statement. "The scaleability of this technology is enabling the automaker to explore a semi-trailer truck application for a California-based feasibility study."

Fuel-cell vehicles rely on a system called a "stack" to combine pure hydrogen with oxygen from the air. That generates a flow of current that can be used to run the same motors found in a battery-electric vehicle.

Toyota said it will begin selling hydrogen buses and will work with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government  to get a fleet of those vehicles into service ahead of the 2020 Olympics which will be held in the Japanese capital.

The latest announcement could take things a significant step further, with Toyota saying it has formed a unit within its U.S. research and development facility to see if hydrogen power could be used on heavy-duty trucks.