Toyota lays out hydrogen roadmap at 2025 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Seminar
Toyota, the world’s most determined hydrogen advocate, has used the 2025 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Seminar to remind everyone that it hasn’t quietly shuffled fuel cells to the back of the cupboard.
In fact, the truth is quite the opposite, with the Japanese firm doubling down and outlining an updated roadmap that positions hydrogen firmly at the heart of its plans for heavy-duty trucks, stationary power, and infrastructure.
At the event, Jay Sackett, Toyota’s Chief Engineer of Advanced Mobility, openly admitted that going it alone isn’t working, telling attendees: “We’re collaborating with companies that would traditionally have been our competition to develop standards for hydrogen fuelling connections and protocols.”
Basically, Toyota reckons standardisation – not rivalry – is how hydrogen finally gets a proper foothold.
Toyota’s hydrogen Tri-gen in action
Toyota’s headline example was its flagship Tri-gen plant at the Port of Long Beach, California, which it built in partnership with FuelCell Energy.
It converts renewable biogas into hydrogen, electricity, and – rather helpfully – clean water. Each day, Toyota says, the plant produces 1,200 kg of hydrogen, 2.3 megawatts of electricity, and 1,400 gallons of water – which conveniently helps staff wash the vehicles coming off ships.
At present, this hydrogen fuels around 30 fuel-cell trucks operating at the port, offsetting around 9,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions a year.
Toyota openly admits this is only scratching the surface, given that 20,000 diesel trucks rumble around the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles every single day.
Or as Toyota’s Jay Sackett put it: “There are as many as 20,000 opportunities every day to clean up the air with hydrogen fuel cell-powered trucks.”
Toyota also made clear that it sees hydrogen trucks as offering real-world advantages over battery-electric alternatives – mainly thanks to faster refuelling.
Refilling a fuel cell truck takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes, significantly quicker than the 90-minute wait for a battery-electric truck at the fastest chargers currently available.
Hydrogen beyond the Mirai
Toyota was also keen to stress that hydrogen has a lot more going for it than ferrying around executives in the Mirai.
Thibaut de Barros Conti, Toyota’s General Manager of Fuel Cell Solutions, showcased a few genuinely useful real-world applications for Toyota’s fuel cell technology:
- A hospital in the Pacific Northwest already relies on a Toyota fuel cell generator for emergency backup power.
- A fuel-cell generator, neatly built into a Toyota Tundra, recently powered Detroit’s Christmas tree lighting. (Festive, and practical.)
- The National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado has installed a 1-megawatt stationary fuel cell power system supplied by Toyota.
- Toyota’s North American Hydrogen Headquarters (H2HQ) in California plans to integrate fuel cells into a new microgrid for enhanced resilience.
Still the same old infrastructure problem
Naturally, Toyota didn’t shy away from acknowledging hydrogen’s eternal nemesis – infrastructure.
De Barros Conti, Toyota’s lead man on fuel cell solutions, described the infrastructure gap as a persistent but manageable challenge, urging industry partners and policymakers to move faster.
“It has not been an easy road,” he admitted, “but it is the right road.”
