Toyota is doubling down on the Toyota hydrogen fuel cells push just as much of the auto industry is heading the other way. The company is joining Daimler Truck and Volvo Group in cellcentric, the joint venture the two truck makers launched in 2020, and the three are now planning to work together on the development and production of fuel cell unit cells for heavy commercial vehicles.
That is a very Toyota move: keep pushing the hydrogen idea while rivals quietly file it under ”nice experiment, not a business.” Stellantis ended its hydrogen fuel cell program last year, and GM gave up on hydrogen in 2025. Toyota itself had already started shifting attention toward industrial uses rather than commercial ones, so this new partnership looks less like a full-throated comeback than a carefully chosen battleground.
Toyota’s role in cellcentric
Once the deal is official, Toyota and cellcentric will collaborate on managing the development and production of fuel cell unit cells. Toyota President and CEO Koji Sato said the company is ”deeply grateful” to be joining Daimler Truck and Volvo Group in building a hydrogen society, and that Toyota’s more than 30 years of fuel-cell development can combine with cellcentric’s commercial-vehicle expertise to produce one of the world’s leading fuel cell systems for heavy trucks.
- Partnering companies: Toyota, Daimler Truck, and Volvo Group
- Joint venture: cellcentric, launched in 2020
- Focus: fuel cell unit cells for heavy commercial vehicles
- Toyota’s fuel-cell experience: more than 30 years in the passenger car sector
Why the truck sector still attracts hydrogen money
Heavy trucks are where hydrogen still has a plausible pitch: long range, fast refueling, and fewer battery-packing headaches than passenger cars. That is not the same as a guaranteed market, of course. Battery-electric trucks are moving fast too, and the European truck makers already have enough regulatory pressure to keep betting on multiple technologies rather than waiting for one silver bullet to appear.
The problem for hydrogen has always been economics, not enthusiasm. Fuel cells need infrastructure, industrial scale, and patient investors, and the industry has spent years discovering that ”future of mobility” does not automatically turn into profitable hardware. Toyota’s latest move says the company still thinks there is a lane for hydrogen in commercial transport. The sharper question is whether the lane is wide enough for everyone who wants in.