Toyota said the new truck’s range can top 300 miles per fill. Photo credit: Greg Horvath
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Toyota Motor Corp. on Monday unveiled a second-generation of its proposed hydrogen fuel cell semi-truck, which it hopes can bring zero-emission to commercial vehicles.
The automaker showed the Class 8 truck, known as “Project Portal 2.0,” at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars. It comes with a driving range of more than 300 miles per fill, about 100 miles better than the first Project Portal semi, unveiled in April 2017.
The first truck, internally called “Alpha,” has since logged 10,000 miles of tests in California. “Beta,” the new truck, will begin tests this fall, the company said.
“By evaluating the first truck in our test facilities and on the actual roads in the LA area, we made a list of improvements for the Beta truck build process and performance enhancements,” Andrew Lund, chief engineer for the project, said in a statement. “We needed to move beyond a proof of concept, which the first truck accomplished, to something that is not only better than the original but is also more commercially viable.”
Lund: “We needed to move beyond a proof of concept, which the first truck accomplished, to something that is not only better than the original but is also more commercially viable.” Photo credit: Greg Horvath
The first truck boasted more than 200-mile range with 670-plus hp and 1,325 pound-feet of torque from two Mirai fuel cell stacks and a 12 kWh battery. Toyota said the new truck maintains those performance numbers while extending the range to more than 300 miles per fill. It is also about 1 ton lighter.
“Our goal with the first truck was to see if it could be accomplished, and we did that,” Craig Scott, senior manager for Toyota’s North American Electrified Vehicle & Technologies Office, said in a statement. “This time we’re looking at commercial viability. We want to help make… a significant difference when it comes to the air quality not only in the LA area but across the U.S. and around the globe.”
Toyota has said it wants to to eliminate CO2 emissions from its Toyota Logistics facility at the Port of Long Beach by 2050. The company says more than 16,000 pollution-emitting trucks are working in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, a number that is estimated to balloon to 32,000 by 2030.
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