Toyota secures funding to develop hydrogen gasoline cell model of Hilux

LONDON — A consortium led by automotive big Toyota will obtain hundreds of thousands in funding to develop a hydrogen gasoline cell pickup truck within the U.Okay.

In a press release Friday, Toyota mentioned the gasoline cell-powered prototype of its Hilux pickup can be developed at its plant in Burnaston, within the East Midlands of England.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK is heading up the consortium, which is being backed by £5.7 million (round $7 million) of trade funding and £5.6 million from the U.Okay. authorities. Thatcham Analysis, D2H, ETL and Ricardo are additionally concerned within the mission.

Though the initiative is being led by TMUK, Toyota mentioned “technical assist” would come from Toyota Motor Europe R&D.

“Inside the scope of the funding bid, preliminary prototype Hilux automobiles can be produced at Burnaston throughout 2023,” it added. “As soon as profitable efficiency outcomes have been secured, the intention is to arrange the automobile for small collection manufacturing.”

The unique model of the Hilux dates again to the Sixties, and a number of other iterations of the automobile have been developed since. The U.Okay. authorities mentioned a gasoline cell Hilux can be “splendid to be used in remoted settings the place electrical automobile charging is impractical.”

Friday’s information represents Toyota’s newest transfer within the sector. The agency began engaged on the event of fuel-cell automobiles again in 1992. In 2014, it launched the Mirai, a hydrogen gasoline cell sedan.

Alongside the Mirai, Toyota has had a hand within the growth of bigger hydrogen gasoline cell automobiles. These embody a bus referred to as the Sora and prototypes of industrial quality vehicles. In addition to gasoline cells, Toyota is utilizing hydrogen in inner combustion engines.

Whereas the enterprise is understood for its hybrid and hydrogen gasoline cell automobiles, it’s also making an attempt to make strikes within the more and more aggressive battery-electric market, the place companies like Tesla and Volkswagen are jostling for place.

This has not been with out its challenges and in June 2022, Toyota issued a security recall for greater than 2,000 of its all-electric SUV, the bZ4X.

The corporate could also be seeking to make investments billions in EV battery manufacturing, but it surely has additionally burdened it “will proceed to make each effort to flexibly meet the wants” of consumers “in all nations and areas by providing a number of powertrains and offering as many choices as attainable.”

The U.Okay. needs to cease the sale of latest diesel and gasoline vehicles and vans by 2030. It’ll require, from 2035, all new vehicles and vans to have zero-tailpipe emissions. The European Union — which the U.Okay. left on Jan. 31, 2020 — is pursuing related targets.