- Toyota Motor North America’s California R&D will be renamed the Hydrogen Headquarters.
- The facility will handle all of Toyota’s hydrogen research and development in North America.
- Toyota also set up “Hydrogen Factories” in Europe and Japan, which handle all of its R&D in the field.
Despite some recent difficulties, Toyota is still committed to making hydrogen-powered vehicles work. To support that goal, the automaker is changing the name of its R&D California office, and it will now be known as the “Hydrogen Headquarters” — or the much catchier H2HQ.
“Toyota has developed hydrogen fuel cell electric solutions for more than three decades, and we will continue to advance this scalable, zero-emission technology as part of our electrified portfolio,” said Ted Ogawa, President and CEO, Toyota Motor North America. “Renaming this facility as North American Hydrogen Headquarters represents our leadership in fuel cell development, creating real-world products to help reduce carbon emissions.”
Read: Toyota Offers Crazy $40k Discount On $67k Mirai FCV, But Can You Live With A Hydrogen Car?
The changes will be more than skin deep, though, as Toyota recently redesigned the office space within the renamed building to make it more suitable for hydrogen research. The automaker plans to add a flexible microgrid to supply the site with green power, a sustainable customer education center, and more.
The facility also already had some useful amenities, such as a 1.2 megawatt dynamometer, which is Toyota’s largest globally. In addition, the location had a scalable test bench for stationary applications (such as generators), and a hydrogen fueling station that can serve both light- and heavy-duty vehicles.
Even before becoming the H2HQ, the California facility was an important link in Toyota’s hydrogen technology development chain. The office previously supported the development of the Mirai, infrastructure growth in the state, and helped create hydrogen-powered heavy-duty truck prototypes.
Now, its focus will be entirely dedicated to hydrogen, and Toyota Motor North America is following the lead of its counterparts in Japan and Europe, each of which concentrated all of their hydrogen research assets into single facilities called Hydrogen Factories.
Looking forward, the North American H2HQ will work to commercialize new products and technologies, though Toyota has not provided any details.
