Toyota Helps Net $41 Million for Zero Emission Freight Project
Toyota scores another win in its efforts to greatly or completely reduce emissions in the trucking industry.
The consumer automotive industry is all about hybrid and electric power these days. And automotive manufacturers are taking notice, developing more and more alternative power for the cars and trucks they offer. But what we often forget is that much of the pollution emitted actually comes from the commercial shipping industry. Toyota, for one, isn’t ignoring this fact. In fact, they’re at the forefront of making big changes.
Toyota played an important role in securing $41 million from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) for the Zero-Emission and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facilities (ZANZEFF) project. Together with support from Kenworth and Shell, Toyota will match the other half of the funds needed to complete this project.
The Zero and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facilities project provides a large-scale “shore to store” plan. This, plus a hydrogen fuel-cell-electric technology framework for freight facilities to structure operations for future goods movement. Altogether, the initiative will help reduce emissions by 465 metric tons of Greenhouse Gas and 0.72 weighted tons of NOx, ROG and PM10.
It’s a massive improvement that won’t impact growth at the large port, either. So the question is, how do Toyota and its partners plan to pull this off? It starts with the creation of ten new zero-emissions hydrogen fuel-cell-electric trucks developed by both Kenworth and Toyota.
Two new large facility heavy-duty hydrogen fueling stations will join three existing ones at Toyota facilities in Los Angeles to help keep these trucks running. Finally, zero-emissions technology will extend to off-road and warehouse equipment as well.
It’s all part of extending Toyota’s vision. Which is built on a belief that fuel-cell-electric technology could become the powertrain of the future. And at least for now, the trucking industry is playing the part of a test bed for this exciting idea.
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