The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota and its commercial vehicle subsidiary Hino Motors are developing a fuel cell truck based on the Hino Profia. The vehicle will use technology that Toyota developed for the next generation Mirai.

According to a Toyota announcement, the chassis of the Profia has been specially adapted for use as a fuel cell vehicle, but Toyota does not mention specific conversions. Only this much: “Extensive weight savings” are intended to enable a high load capacity. The almost 12-metre-long Profia is to have a total weight of 25 tonnes.

Thanks to two fuel cell stacks, which have already been developed for the next generation of the Toyota Mirai, the range is expected to be 600 kilometers. So far Toyota does not make any statements about the performance of the FC drive, nor is there any information about the hydrogen tank’s size and position. The Japanese had presented the second generation Mirai in autumn 2019, but had hardly published any technical details about the drive. Thanks to larger hydrogen tanks and an optimised fuel cell the claimed range is 30 per cent higher than the predecessor’s – but none of these details can be transferred to the H2 truck now shown. The Mirai car is scheduled to go into production this autumn – until then Toyota will probably provide more data.

In the communication, Toyota focuses on the challenges of heavy-duty traffic in Japan – trucks account for about 60 per cent of the total CO2 emissions of commercial vehicles in Japan. With the fuel cell truck, the Toyota Group wants to develop a commercial vehicle that combines “economy, sustainability and practical benefits”. A date for a possible (small) series production of the FC truck is not mentioned in the communication, however.

With reporting by Sebastian Schaal, Germany.

global.toyota, hino-motors.com