Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
A report has just come out that Toyota will build a Tundra hydrogen pickup truck because it’ll be ideal for Americans.
Americans are going to love it, apparently. Now, Toyota has also spent a whole lot of money on building a huge hydrogen hub in the United States.
R&D Headquarters Transformation
Toyota announced it is turning its R&D office in Los Angeles into its new North American Hydrogen headquarters. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
Toyota says its H2 HQ will drive its North American land hydrogen initiatives and help it localize global hydrogen-related technologies and products.
The tundra appears to be on Toyota’s mind. The pickup truck industry in the US is massive.
Toyota’s Belief in Hydrogen
Toyota plans an onslaught, apparently, with a hydrogen tundra. Toyota believes that truck owners in America, they want a hydrogen pickup.
This would be perfect for truck owners in the United States.
In fact, Toyota even have a Tundra in Japan, which is a fuel cell hybrid and has a fuel cell, a hydrogen fuel cell, and a battery, and they use that to tow around their hydrogen internal combustion engine race car. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
Toyota Analysis Truck Owners Preferences
Toyota is one of those companies who believe that hydrogen is the future of the automotive industry.
They still believe that by 2040, the majority of cars being sold worldwide, this is what Toyota have said within the last few months, the majority of them will be powered by hydrogen.
Therefore, Toyota continued to invest huge sums of money into hydrogen, not only just hydrogen vehicles and trucks, but also a hydrogen refueling network.
Fuel Cell Technology in Pickup Trucks
They actually have a joint venture partnership with a fossil fuel company, an oil company, actually, where they both essentially contribute 50% of the funds each and then building out, trying to build out hydrogen refueling stations and a hydrogen network. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
Anyhow, Tundra says that fuel cells may not be best suited for cars. However, hydrogen fuel cell pickup trucks, meaning pickup trucks with a hydrogen fuel cell and a small battery would be perfect for American truck buyers.
Future Plans and Partnerships
Now, the assumption here from Toyota and from inside EVs is that it’s only EVs that struggle with towing and that therefore, their range is affected when towing.
Toyota is, they believe, one of the biggest experts in fuel cell trucks or in fuel cell, hydrogen fuel cells.
This is what Jay Sackett, Toyota’s chief engineer, said, This offers a great opportunity for light-duty trucks.
You could get the same amount of range for a truck that you would need a very large battery for.
Now, Sackett spoke about this during an interview at Toyota’s North American Hydrogen HQ, where Group Vice President Jordan Choby went to the stage to announce that the hydrogen tanks that Toyota already has will be a perfect fit for the Toyota Tundra-sized fuel cell pickup.
Choby said they have a fuel cell Tundra pickup truck in Japan that they use to tow their hydrogen internal combustion race car. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
If that’s the case, then sign me up. If they’re using it right now in Japan and they’re towing their Hydrogen race car that’s internal combustion Hydrogen, then it must be a great idea.
Why on Earth would a pickup truck driver want to be at Toyota’s behest? You know how much expensive hydrogen is at the moment? It’s five times more expensive than gasoline, five times more.
Applications Beyond Pickup Trucks
In fact, I think it’s gone up since then. I think it’s actually six times more expensive as of today.
The price just keeps on going up, it’s not going down. Hydrogen refueling stations, the number of hydrogen refueling stations appears to be contracting this year. And the number appears to be going down.
So range anxiety, apparently, is a huge problem for hydrogen-powered vehicle owners at the moment because You can’t charge at home.
Where can you charge? A very small number of places. Some of them are shutting down. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
The ones that are not are charging insane amounts for hydrogen. The two executives said they haven’t yet confirmed.
They’re not confirming that Toyota is building a Tundra pickup truck, but considering the fact they’ve already got one, they’re driving around, I would say Toyota is taking this pretty seriously.
Truck Owner Want Fuel
Here’s what the chief engineer said, Tundra owners like to tow. Truck owners also want the fast fueling.
Hydrogen allows you do that you can pump it like gasoline. Now, that’s not entirely true, there’s a few issues here with being able to pump it like gasoline.
For one, they can freeze. Anyway, aside from that, aside from the incredibly high price and the fact that there’s very, very few refueling stations, you can’t really compare it to gasoline. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
Because if there was a million different stations in America that said, Yeah, we’re going to sell hydrogen in a week or in a year or two years, you’d go, Okay, this sounds like a good idea, but they’re not going to.
So how is this even a question? I don’t know how this is possibly a solution.
Toyota also showed that they’ve been working on and have a fuel cell version of the Hilux.
The Toyota Hilux is Toyota’s best-selling pickup truck worldwide. Apparently, it has 365 miles of range before it needs to be refilled, so it doesn’t have a particularly long range either.
Challenges and Criticisms
In July of 2022, Toyota said it was looking to team up with other automakers to create hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
It announced that it planned to join forces with Daihatsu and Suzuki for small vehicles and for large trucks, Isuzu and Hino. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
Toyota, apparently, are apparently conducting tests with fuel cell-equipped Class 8 semi-trucks in California, and they plan on selling those as well.
It’s going to be a big thing for Toyota, they say. In addition to that, Toyota said it achieved with the Kenworth T680 fuel cell.
The vehicle has 300 miles of range when fully loaded to 82,000 pounds. So a bit less range than a Tesla Semi.
Which one would you prefer if you had a tracking company, a Tesla Semi, or a Toyota hydrogen-powered Kenworth T680 fuel cell truck.
Sales and Market Dynamics
Toyota sales are pretty spectacular. They still sold 10 million cars last year.
Keep in mind, though, Toyotas, what cars are they selling? They’re now selling a lot of hybrids, and they’re selling a lot more cars in places like Southeast Asia, where the average transaction price is lower.
But those are places where I believe Chinese EV companies, in particular, plan to grow enormously. Toyota Hydrogen Tundra
If you have a look at all the factories that are actually currently being built in Thailand for Southeast Asian countries and for production in places like Australia, New Zealand as well, Malaysia, etc, you can see that massive disruption is going to happen with a lot of EVs.
You can see EV sales growth is enormous. Look, in Thailand, EV sales are up around 180% over the past 12 months.