Toyota partners with Coca-Cola and Air Liquide for hydrogen HGV tests
Toyota has teamed up with Coca-Cola to lead a new trial of hydrogen fuel cell-powered trucks in Europe.
The new partnership with the drinks giant and clean energy specialist Air Liquide represents the next step in testing for the hydrogen-powered HGVs. In 2023 Toyota announced it would be testing them on a number of supply routes between its own European factories. It has also been developing a hydrogen FCEV version of the Hilux pick-up.
The new trucks, developed in partnership with VDL, will be used on Coca-Cola’s supply route to test the viability of FCEV in heavy-duty transport situations.
The truck’s fuel cell system uses modules which combine hydrogen and oxygen molecules to produce water, simultaneously generating electricity. As a result, water is the only tailpipe emission. Air Liquide, a leader in clean energy, is supplying the project with hydrogen sourced from renewables.
While many manufacturers, including Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, are developing long-range fully electric HGVs, Toyota believes the hydrogen FCEVs can also support the decarbonisation of heavy-duty road transport and provide a more rapid refuelling option than BEVs.
Heavy-duty haulage accounts for a quarter of Europe’s freight transport, based on tonnes-per-kilometre carried. Toyota argues that HGVs equipped with hydrogen fuel cell technology have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of long-haul logistics operations and stimulate the development of a sustainable hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.
It also claims that commercial trucks’ usage patterns and their demand for large volumes of hydrogen make them key to the development of sustainable hydrogen infrastructures. The lack of such infrastructure has been seen as part of the reason that FCEV passenger cars such as Toyota’s own Mirai have failed to attract buyers.
Thiebault Pacquet, vice president of R&D for Toyota Motor Europe, commented: “To help speed up the expansion of hydrogen technology implementation in our society, we are expanding the use of our Toyota Fuel Cell Module beyond passenger cars and into trucks, buses, coaches, trains, boats, near-shore and short-sea vessels, stationary generators and so on.
“It is a great pleasure to collaborate with like-minded partners and demonstrate our shared vision of sustainable mobility. The insights gained from these proofs-of-concept will serve as crucial milestones on our path towards achieving zero tailpipe carbon emissions in our logistics operations by 2040.”
Eric Desbonnets, vice president of Paris 2024 operations for Coca-Cola, said: “We are pleased to partner with Toyota and Air Liquide to test hydrogen solutions for our long-distance logistics operations. We want to learn from this experience as we continue to work towards reducing our carbon footprint.”
