A joint development project between Toyota Motor Corp. and Hino Motors will see the companies develop a heavy-duty fuel cell truck as part of their efforts to curb CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Both companies said they are taking proactive action toward helping curb global environmental issues and are developing electric vehicle technologies for widespread use beyond passenger vehicles. The companies said that to achieve further reductions in CO₂ emissions, improvements will be needed on heavy-duty trucks because they account for about 60% of total CO₂ emissions from commercial vehicles in Japan, according to Hino internal research.

Heavy-duty trucks are typically used for highway transportation and need enough cruising range, load capacity and fast refueling capability. Fuel cell vehicles that run on hydrogen have higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, which could better serve heavy-duty trucks, the companies believe.

The chassis of the heavy-duty fuel cell truck is designed to achieve comprehensive weight reduction for load capacity and the powertrain is equipped with two Toyota fuel cell stacks. Range of the fuel cell truck is about 372 miles on a single charge.

The companies said this is the beginning of the path toward using hydrogen cells and they will continue to develop new paths to making hydrogen fuel cell technology for vehicles a reality.