The development of Toyota’s hydrogen fuel-cell technology will now focus on Europe and China.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Toyota plans to shift its focus to increasing sales of hydrogen gasoline-cell vehicles in Europe and China as part of its plan to offer 200,000 of these automobiles by the year 2030.

According to Reuters, this represents a shift in strategy on the part of Toyota, which had previously made the North American market its primary focus for fuel-mobile vehicles. But unfortunately, such tactic is not producing the desired results. According to Reuters, Toyota sold slightly more than 3,900 gas-powered automobiles in 2022. This represents less than half of one percent of the company’s total global sales of over 9.5 million vehicles.

However, Toyota CTO Hiroki Nakajima told Reuters that the 200,000-unit goal truly should be very readily attainable, in part due to the increased emphasis on Europe and China. Nakajima stated this because of the increased attention on the two regions. Nakajima stated that there has been an increase in the production of hydrogen as well as an increase in the demand from customers in these industries. He also introduced that Toyota intends to bring down expenditures and rely on partnerships with other firms.

Toyota’s gas cell is designed for use in heavy-duty trucks.

The previous month, Toyota made an announcement on the development of a Hydrogen Manufacturing plant company for hydrogen and fuel cells, coupled with a target of having fuel-cell units installed in 100,000 vehicles year by the year 2030.

Despite this, Toyota is working on fuel-cell concepts for the American market. The manufacture of hydrogen gas-cell modules in the state of Kentucky is scheduled to begin in December of this year and is proceeding according to plan. According to Automotive News, the car manufacturer has already begun making plans for a next-generation gasoline-powered vehicle process that will debut in 2026. This method is expected to reduce costs while simultaneously increasing range and durability.

Prior to this announcement, Toyota stated that it might achieve a 37% charge reduction “through technological progress, volume effectiveness, and localization,” and expenditure reductions as significant as 50% barring even more collaboration with other firms, and obtain orders for 200,000 vehicles by the year 2030.

Vans made by Kenworth and Peterbilt equipped with hydrogen fuel-mobile modules made by Toyota

Before this year, Toyota expanded both its gas-mobile semi programmes and its fuel-cell vehicle programmes for the United States. The company also commercialised fuel-cell vehicles by merging its fuel-cell kits with chassis from Peterbilt and Kenworth. This comes as a result of experiments conducted in California on prototype Toyota-driven Kenworth trucks. Additionally, it is cooperating with the United States Department of Energy and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on the implementation of fuel-mobile technology in the service of helping to smooth the grid.

And in addition to the Mirai, which is the only gasoline-cell Toyota passenger car that is now available, the carmaker has also announced that a fuel-cell model of the Crown is on the horizon, although it will not necessarily be available in the United States.