Toyota & Sinotruk sign heavy hydrogen truck cooperation deal
Toyota and Sinotruk signed an agreement to this effect at the end of April, but are only now publicising the deal. According to the agreement, they want to work together to accelerate the roll-out of H2 trucks in China and not only jointly develop them, but also set up new business models and a comprehensive ecosystem for CO2-neutral logistics.
Yoichi Miyazaki, Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor, praised the success of the cooperation between the two sides at the signing of the agreement in Japan and emphasised the enormous potential of the Chinese market for fuel cell vehicles. Potential for the Japanese, too, as Toyota expects the deal to open up new sales opportunities for its fuel cell technology. The Group only presented its third-generation fuel cell system in February, which is intended for widespread use in cars, commercial vehicles, trains, ships and stationary applications. The market launch is scheduled for 2026.
Toyota is also deliberately targeting the commercial vehicle market with the new system: thanks to its compact design, the future fuel cell drive should be easier to integrate into various commercial vehicles. “In passenger cars, the improved fuel efficiency ensures a greater range and therefore even greater safety. For heavy commercial vehicles, the new fuel cell system offers durability and high performance comparable to diesel engines,” it said.
The third-generation fuel cell system is to be introduced mainly in Japan, Europe, North America and China from 2026. The background to this is that Toyota not only uses its fuel cell systems itself, but also offers them to third-party customers. In the passenger car sector, BMW is a Toyota partner; in the bus sector, the Portuguese manufacturer Caetano Bus and Karsan from Turkey use Toyota systems. In the truck sector, VDL, Paccar and Hyliko are already customers.
Now, Sinotruk, a major Chinese player, is joining them as a partner. The company is officially called China National Heavy Duty Truck Group (CNHTC) and is based in Jinan in the province of Shandong. Sinotruk is considered the largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks in China and sold around 245,000 vehicles in 2024, which corresponds to 27 per cent of the entire domestic market. The company is said to have sold 6,166 trucks with alternative drive systems last year, including BEVs and FCEVs.
From Sinotruk’s recent past, we are particularly aware of a major order for 1,100 FC trucks. In September 2022, three companies ordered this fuel cell fleet from Sinotuk and Weichai Power. It should take ‘two to three years’ for the order to be fully processed. The three customers were Qingdao Shengtonghua Automobile Sales & Service, Zibo Zhanhong Automobile and the logistics company Tongxin Logistics Technology. In turn, Weichai entered into a strategic partnership with fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems in 2018 and has been Ballard’s largest single shareholder ever since. The supplier is one of Sinotruk’s close partners.
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