Toyota Focusing on Hydrogen Buses
Competition between Hyundai Motor and Toyota over global hydrogen economy initiatives is intensifying amid increasing global efforts towards carbon neutrality by 2025.
Toyota acquired stakes in CayetanoBus, a Portuguese bus manufacturer, and Finlog, a passenger car financial services company, in December 2020.
Toyota already supplies hydrogen buses with a mileage of 400 kilometers to CayetanoBus. The Japanese automaker plans to step up the supply of hydrogen buses to Europe and introduce bus financial leasing services. It plans to dominate the European hydrogen commercial vehicle market by expanding its presence in the European hydrogen bus market instead of the European hydrogen truck market, which is dominated by Hyundai Motor.
Hyundai Motor succeeded in volume production of hydrogen fuel cell trucks in July 2020 and started to export them to Europe. Hyundai Motor will establish a joint venture with Swiss hydrogen solution company H2 Energy and supply 1,600 large hydrogen trucks by 2025. In addition to supplying trucks, the company plans to create a large hydrogen truck ecosystem through close cooperation with hydrogen producers, hybrid distribution and logistics companies (corporate customers), and hydrogen mobility associations (the construction of hydrogen charging stations).
In response to Hyundai Motor's move to build a hydrogen ecosystem in Europe, Toyota established Fuel Cell Business Group, a global hydrogen fuel cell company, in Europe early January. The new corporation, based in Brussels, Belgium, will not only sell hydrogen cars but also coordinate cooperation with governments, institutions and companies from each country and carry out all tasks facing the hydrogen economy. In addition, Toyota is also expanding its truck business by unveiling a hydrogen truck prototype developed jointly with truck manufacturer Kenworth in the United States.
In the hydrogen car market, the release of Toyota's second-generation Mirai model in January is expected to intensify overseas competition between the two companies' flagship models. Although Toyota is about three years late to launch a second-generation full-change model, the Mirai has an upper hand in terms of specifications. Compared to Hyundai Motor's Nexo, the Mirai's driving distance is about 40 kilometers longer and its price is about 15 percent lower.
In response, Hyundai Motor plans to release a follow-up model of the Nexo loaded with a next-generation hydrogen fuel cell system within the next three to four years. Hyundai Motor's next-generation hydrogen fuel cell system is expected to lead the popularization of hydrogen vehicles by focusing on performance, durability, and cost improvement.