Toyota eyes hydrogen opportunities

Toyota New Zealand is looking to advance the use of hydrogen technology through a range of projects and commercial partnerships across the country.

The company has announced it is expanding its business activities as part of an overall aim to provide a number of carbon-neutral technologies to meet the needs of customers.

Neeraj Lala, Toyota NZ’s chief executive, says: “As we continue to focus on increasing our electrification in our light vehicle fleet, we are looking to explore the applications of hydrogen technology outside of the automotive industry.

“This is not a distraction from BEV [battery electric vehicle] application in our light vehicle fleet, it is to ensure our ongoing business resiliency beyond just mobility through alternative business opportunities.”

Toyota Motor Corporation has developed a fuel cell module that can be used across a variety of applications including trucks, buses, trains, ships and stationary generators.

Lala says the marque’s local arm has support from the parent organisation to explore a number of commercial partnerships “to test new ideas and innovate for a better future”.

“We are supporting our long-term partners, Emirates Team New Zealand [ETNZ], by supplying them the hydrogen fuel cell system as a way to investigate the different applications of this carbon neutral technology,” he explains. 

“We have secured from Toyota Motor Corp two prototype units for the ETNZ trial that were still in their preproduction phase.

“We will also continue to explore other corporate partnerships to further popularise this technology beyond the automotive light vehicle industry in New Zealand.”

Lala adds the company, as a member of the New Zealand Hydrogen Council, will also explore hydrogen projects that are in their early phases and work on hydrogen technology with other partners such as Mitsui, and energy-supply partners, Hiringa and Obayashi Corporation.