Australia’s favourite car brand is betting big on hydrogen power.
Toyota has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Australia, Ampol and leading hydrogen technologies specialist Pacific Energy to help develop hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars use hydrogen to create electricity that power electric motors. The only tailpipe emission is water, they are quick to refill and can be driven a similar or greater distance on a tank to petrol cars.
The handshake agreement brings together four big industry players that aim to speed up the take-up of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Australia by creating the infrastructure so that car makers can in turn bring the vehicles here for sale.
Toyota head of sales and marketing Sean Hanley says this is a really positive first step in developing hydrogen infrastructure but there is a long way to go.
“We’ve always said that to build hydrogen infrastructure you need to bring together governments, energy companies and we need to work together,” says Hanley.
Ampol boss Matt Halliday says: “Hydrogen can play an important role in delivering decarbonisation benefits for transport and developing the right infrastructure to support a successful rollout is key.”
No money has been invested and no ground has been broken on new refuelling stations but Toyota Australia wants it to happen.
Currently Toyota and Hyundai have a small fleet of their Mirai and Nexo hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Australia that have been leased to companies and governments keen to trial the zero-emissions technology.
There are currently only eight refuelling stations nationwide, which makes it impossible to sell fuel cell vehicles to the public.
Most of the hydrogen produced in Australia is used for use in industry and only a small amount is produced for use in vehicles.
The move to push for hydrogen power in Australia comes as Toyota has been facing intense pressure from climate groups for its lack of action on zero-emissions vehicles.
Toyota has been lagging on the development of battery powered electric cars and is preparing to launch the bZ4X – its first electric car – in Australia next February many years after rivals brought EVs to market.
On top of this two of Toyota Australia’s top selling vehicles are the diesel-powered HiLux ute and LandCruiser four-wheel drive.
Both vehicles face multiple challenges to transition to battery power but hydrogen fuel cell technology could be the long term solution.
“From a Toyota perspective we’ve never shied away from the fact that we believe that hydrogen fuel cell technology will play a role and it has a role to play particularly in heavy commercial vehicles,” says Hanley.
“Hydrogen is an outstandingly good fuel source and a solution to a carbon neutral commercial vehicle that has to tow and has to have range and doesn’t take long to recharge or fill. Hydrogen works well in that regard.”
Hanley says initially it was going to be hard to source green hydrogen, which is produced using carbon neutral renewable energy, but it is the aim in the long run.
Fuel-cell vehicles with hydrogen tanks are still prohibitively expensive, but many, including Toyota and Hyundai, see them as a long term ticket to emissions-free motoring.
Hanley admitted that fuel cell vehicles are not cheap but over time as you get infrastructure and as you get scale and volume prices will come down.