Toyota Motor North America has reaffirmed its commitment to its vision of a ‘Hydrogen Society’, introducing new hydrogen-related plans and investments, as well as new fuel cell technologies and products, at the 2025 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Anaheim, CA.
At a keynote during the event’s Hydrogen Workshop, Toyota Group Vice President of Powertrain Engineering Jordan Choby announced plans to introduce hydrogen-powered, fuel-cell electric, Class 8 heavy-duty trucks. With these trucks, the OEM is aiming to reduce the number of diesel-powered tractor trailers servicing its North America Parts Center California (NAPCC). To support the new hydrogen trucks in the fleet, the company also announced plans for a new hydrogen fueling station to be built on the NAPCC campus, as well as plans to further invest and vertically integrate into the hydrogen ecosystem.
The OEM’s commitment to hydrogen was further affirmed through its plan to introduce production-level FCEV trucks to its logistics fleet, running routes from the Port of Long Beach to the NAPCC in Ontario, CA, and San Diego. This activity will help Toyota achieve its 2050 Challenge goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from its supply chain.
To facilitate these plans, Toyota announced new partnerships with Air Liquide and Iwatani to strengthen its fueling infrastructure. With Iwatani, the OEM is focused more specifically on commercial vehicles for a state-of-the-art station that will use new liquid hydrogen technology and SAE J2601/5-capable high-flow fueling systems. Toyota says that the system can enable faster fueling than conventional hydrogen fueling stations, is comparable in fueling time with diesel fuel pumps, and supports fleet and commercial customers in helping improve operational uptime.
Toyota and Air Liquide will work together on sourcing and delivering hydrogen molecules from Air Liquide’s dedicated hydrogen mobility plant in North Las Vegas, Nevada, with a focus on supplying the NAPCC station with reliable, affordable liquid hydrogen. In addition to these partnerships, Toyota will more broadly look to build relationships with other companies and organizations both in the U.S. and internationally.
In Japan, for example, the OEM is collaborating with Chiyoda on electrolysis technology, where the companies are combining their respective experiences in industrial products and plant engineering. Electrolyzers can split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, generating hydrogen fuel. Toyota is also looking to extract hydrogen from the methane byproducts derived from animal waste, wastewater treatment plants and landfills.
Toyota also debuted its next-generation fuel cell technology in North America, the Toyota Gen 3 FC system. Set to preliminarily arrive in the U.S. in or after 2027, the Gen 3 FC system was designed with a focus on versatility and will offer different sizes and power outputs for commercial, heavy trucking and passenger vehicle applications.
Toyota expects its next-gen system to be both 20% more efficient and 20% more powerful than its current system. For heavy truck powertrains, the Gen 3 FC is anticipated to travel for more than 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) without a need for major service, a maintenance schedule that the OEM says is on par with comparable diesel-powered trucks.
