With the rapidly expanding interest in heavy-duty electric trucks, Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) and Hino USA will ‘leverage’ the new Hino XL Series chassis with Toyota’s proven fuel cell technology to build on the development of a 25-tonne fuel cell electric truck (FCET) for the Japanese market, which was announced earlier this year. The first demonstration vehicle is expected to be launched in the first half of 2021.

Tak Yokoo, senior executive engineer at Toyota Research and Development, said: “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 20-plus years of fuel cell technology, combined with Hino’s heavy-duty truck experience, will create an innovative and capable product.”

Meanwhile, the railway company JR East, Hitachi Ltd and Toyota Motor Corporation have entered into an agreement to develop and test railway vehicles equipped with hybrid systems that use hydrogen-powered fuel cells and storage batteries as their electric power source.

The combination of JR East’s vehicle design and manufacturing technologies, Hitachi’s railway hybrid drive system technologies and Toyota’s technologies from its development of the Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle and the SORA fuel cell bus, will enable the three companies to adapt the fuel cells used in automobiles for railway applications.

Toyota will develop the fuel cell device and Hitachi the hybrid drive system in the test train, which will have the nickname HYBARI (HYdrogen-HYBrid Advanced Rail vehicle for Innovation).

Testing is scheduled to start in March 2022 on the JR East Tsurumi Line/Nambu Line, with the two-carriage train having a maximum speed of 62mph and a maximum range of 87 miles.