The oddly-shaped vehicle you’re looking at is dubbed the ‘Uno’ and is a utility tractor rig (UTR) developed by Toyota that runs on hydrogen.
UTRs are used in shipping yards around the world and move freight. They are often needed to pull loads of 120,000 lbs (~54,000 kg) or more and traditionally are powered by diesel. However, throughout 2022, the Port of Los Angeles became the site of 16 different pilot programs where hundreds of zero-emission UTRs were being put through their paces.
Toyota developed its hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric truck in partnership with Fenix Marine Services. It was initially introduced in 2019 at the Port of Los Angeles. While the Uno completed its testing as a proof-of-concept truck at the port last year, it has been relocated to the carmaker’s Los Angeles Parts Distribution Center in Torrance, California where it has started to carry a different kind of freight.
Read: Toyota To Continue Hydrogen Development Despite Shifting Main Focus To EVs
The powertrain of the truck uses the same basic system as the hydrogen Toyota Mirai but has been upgraded to haul much larger loads. Moving forward, Toyota says it could act as a Tier 1 supplier of hydrogen-powered fuel cell powertrains to other manufacturers. This would see it manufacture the fuel cell stacks, hydrogen tanks, and other necessary software and hardware while the commercial vehicles themselves would be designed and developed by other companies.
Toyota engineers are currently working on a new fuel cell electric powertrain for UTRs with more performance.
“The results of these improvements will be a much more capable version of the hydrogen-powered UTR, bringing it closer to matching, or in some cases even exceeding, the performance of the carbon-intensive powertrains it will eventually replace,” Toyota engineer Dallas Fox described.
