UPS will start using Toyota’s hydrogen semi trucks later this year

Toyota’s latest hydrogen-fuel powered semi truck was unveiled this week, and the company says it’s ready to be put to work.

Toyota’s Project Portal, a project which applies zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell technology to commercial trucks, has been around since 2017. But it wasn’t until this year that project directors were confident enough send their hydrogen-fuel powered trucks out into the world.

The hydrogen-fuel powered trucks were developed with help from Kenworth and the first fleet of 10 are scheduled to debut at various trucking companies across the Los Angeles, California area by the end of this year. Four of these trucks will operate out of Toyota Logistics Services, where they will help move Toyota vehicles and products between ports in LA and Long Beach, three will be operated by UPS, two will be operated by Total Transportation Services, and one will go to Southern Counties Express, all in the Los Angeles area.

These zero-emissions semi trucks utilize a hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain, which converts compressed hydrogen gas into electricity and emits only water. This, combined with a battery, gives the big rigs a range of just over 300 miles, which Toyota says is “about twice the average distance a truck of this kind can expect to travel in a single day,” reported CNet.

Shell says it plans to construct two major hydrogen-fueling stations in California, in addition to the two already standing, in order to help make these zero-emissions trucks a reality and Toyota says that it plans go even greener by replacing all of its trucks, tractors, and forklifts with its own hydrogen-fueled versions, which are already in production, eliminating carbon-dioxide emissions at its Port of Long Beach facility by 2050.