Toyota reveals an improved fuel cell truck
Together with U.S. American truck specialist Kenworth, Toyota has developed the next generation of its fuel cell truck created in the course of “Project Portal“. The model now travels more than 300 miles (482 kilometres) on one fill.
According to Toyota, the loading capacity, packaging and performance of the heavy-duty truck have also been improved. Since April 2017, the Group has been working on a hydrogen-powered fuel cell drive especially for heavy trucks.
According to Toyota, the “Alpha” truck and the further developed “Beta” truck presented by the Japanese company since then have already managed more than 22,500 test kilometres within the scope of cargo handling in and around the Californian ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. In concrete terms, the Toyota trucks with FC propulsion have been in service there since October 2017 and cover around 320 kilometres a day.
To date, the 40-tonne model was equipped with two fuel cell stacks from the Toyota Mirai and a 12 kWh battery. This gave the truck a range of over 200 miles (320 km). The further developed generation now presented is based on the Kenworth T680 Class 8 Truck and is expected to travel another 100 miles, as mentioned above.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the first new fuel cell trucks will start operating in California’s ports. Currently, more than 16,000 trucks are already in service there as part of the Zero and Near-Zero Emissions Freight Facilities (ZANZEFF) project. By 2030 their number is expected to double again. The California Air Resources Board is supporting the ZANZEFF initiative with 41 million dollars (around 36 million euros).
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