- Toyota Motor North America’s research and development department in California will be renamed Hydrogen Headquarters.
- The facility will handle all of Toyota’s hydrogen research and development in North America.
- In addition, Toyota has set up “hydrogen factories” in Europe and Japan to handle all research and development in this area.
Despite some recent difficulties, Toyota remains committed to getting hydrogen-powered vehicles up and running. To support this goal, the automaker is changing the name of its research and development office in California to “Hydrogen Headquarters” – or the much catchier H2HQ.
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“Toyota has been developing 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 electrification portfolio,” said Ted Ogawa, president and CEO of Toyota Motor North America. “Renaming this facility the North American Hydrogen Headquarters represents our leadership in fuel cell development and creating real products that help reduce carbon emissions.”
Read: Toyota offers crazy $40,000 discount on $67,000 Mirai FCV, but can you live with a hydrogen car?
The changes will be more than superficial, however, as Toyota recently redesigned the office space in the renamed building to make it more suitable for hydrogen research. The automaker plans to add a flexible microgrid to power the site with green energy, a sustainable customer training center and more.
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The facility also already had some useful amenities, such as a 1.2-megawatt dynamometer, which is Toyota’s largest in the world. In addition, the site had a scalable test bed for stationary applications (e.g. generators) and a hydrogen filling station that can serve both light and heavy commercial vehicles.
Even before the California plant became H2HQ, it was an important link in Toyota’s hydrogen technology development chain. The office previously supported the development of the Mirai, infrastructure development in the state and helped develop hydrogen-powered heavy-duty truck prototypes.
Now the focus will be solely on hydrogen, and Toyota Motor North America is following the example of its counterparts in Japan and Europe, which have concentrated all of their hydrogen research resources in individual facilities called Hydrogen Factories.
Looking forward, North American H2HQ will work to commercialize new products and technologies, but Toyota has not revealed details.
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