Photo: Toyota
In an age when Tesla, Daimler, and a few others are betting on electric power for the truck segment of their business, the Japanese from Toyota are pushing for the creation of trucks that run on hydrogen power.
During the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Management Briefing Seminars in Northern Michigan this week, Toyota unveiled its new hydrogen-powered Class 8 truck. For the moment known only as Beta, the truck is based on the Portal heavy-duty test vehicle.
The Portal project began last year, with the goal of creating a green road-worthy truck. Since then, the test truck clocked 10,000 miles of “testing and real-world drayage operations in and around the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles.”
The lessons learned with the Portal were put to work in this second version of the truck, one Toyota now says is capable of achieving a range of more than 300 miles per fill. The Beta also got a sleeper cab and a unique fuel cabinet combination that doesn’t increase the wheelbase.
“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," said in a statement Andrew Lund, chief engineer for the project.
"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."
The Portal project as a whole has been created by Toyota as a means to eliminate CO2 emissions from its Logistics facility at the Port of Long Beach by 2050. Most of the facility will run on hydrogen, supplied by the world’s first megawatt-sized carbonate fuel cell power generation plant being built in Fountain Valley.
The carmaker did not yet announce plans to market the truck on the open market.
The Portal project began last year, with the goal of creating a green road-worthy truck. Since then, the test truck clocked 10,000 miles of “testing and real-world drayage operations in and around the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles.”
The lessons learned with the Portal were put to work in this second version of the truck, one Toyota now says is capable of achieving a range of more than 300 miles per fill. The Beta also got a sleeper cab and a unique fuel cabinet combination that doesn’t increase the wheelbase.
“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," said in a statement Andrew Lund, chief engineer for the project.
"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."
The Portal project as a whole has been created by Toyota as a means to eliminate CO2 emissions from its Logistics facility at the Port of Long Beach by 2050. Most of the facility will run on hydrogen, supplied by the world’s first megawatt-sized carbonate fuel cell power generation plant being built in Fountain Valley.
The carmaker did not yet announce plans to market the truck on the open market.
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