Although Toyota is now beginning to explore the electric market with the arrival of the Toyota bZ4X and its brand new Beyond Zero range, the first exclusively electric powered vehicle will always be the Toyota Proace, its light van developed together with the Stellantis Group. Now the Japanese they want to develop small electric vans and hydrogen trucks. It will share the work with several partners, mainly Daihatsu and Suzuki. The first tests will be carried out locally, although they may end up expanding to the whole world.
In Japan it is very common for brands to collaborate with each other to develop vehicles. Toyota is the great Japanese brand, and almost everyone works with it at some point. Now, it is the Asian giant that is looking for partners to develop mini electric delivery vehicles. A kind of industrial key car that performs urban delivery tasks in a sustainable and agile way. Japanese key cars are very specific cars designed by and for Japan. On the island they are widely used for their advantages when driving.
The intention is that the vehicles born from the collaboration transport goods in the city of Tokyo and the prefecture of Fukushima. Barely 200 kilometers of route that must be carried out in the most sustainable way possible. For such work, it has sought collaboration with the Daihatsu and Suzuki brands, both experts in the manufacture of small-sized vehicles. The project will start early next year, and is expected to continue until 2030.. Once the experiment is completed, Toyota will evaluate the possibility of exporting them to other markets in order to promote sustainable mobility in deliveries.
But Toyota’s plans do not end there. The Japanese brand will not focus exclusively on small electric vehicles, it will also bet on hydrogen-powered trucks. In this case, the collaboration unites brands such as Isuzu and Hino, both with extensive experience in the field of heavy vehicles. Toyota remains focused on the development of hydrogen as an alternative system, as it has been demonstrating for some time with the commercialization of the Toyota Mirai, which is currently the most commercialized hydrogen car in the world, although not by much.
In the case of hydrogen trucks, the terms of the project have not been specified, but we imagine that the complexity of the development may delay the times. Toyota has expressed that it can export its new developments to the international market at the “right time”but has not provided further details. It is difficult to know if this landing will finally take place, although it must be taken into account that the peculiarities of Japan are the most extravagant in markets such as Europe or America.
