In addition to the 500 Mirai, which will be part of the official fleet at the Olympics, Toyota plans to showcase the other applications of hydrogen in mobility.
According to Toyota’s website, the company “will bring up to 10 different hydrogen mobility applications to demonstrate a hydrogen ecosystem and encourage further roll-out of refuelling infrastructure.” At a forum held at Toyota Europe’s headquarters last December, Chief Corporate Officer Matt Harrison revealed that Toyota would be showcasing buses, trucks, coaches, forklifts and even boats on the Seine.
Retrofitted coaches
Toyota had already announced that hydrogen retrofitted coaches would be operating during the Olympics. The company will supply fuel cell modules to GCK, which is in charge of converting ten used coaches into electric vehicles. The converted coaches will be purchased by B.E. Green, a French company providing carbon-neutral transport services, which will later integrate them into its existing fleet after the Olympic Games.
Toyota is entering the bus market in partnership with Caetano. The first hydrogen-powered bus to be delivered in France was in December 2021. France is one of the countries targeted by Toyota Europe, and the biggest contract to date is for Strasbourg, with 60 buses over a period of 5 years. As far as trucks are concerned, Hyliko is a partner of the Japanese manufacturer. The company will be taking concrete action this year, with vehicles that will be deployed as part of the Grand-ParHY plan and on display at its centre in Villabé, south of Paris.
Toyota on the Seine
We also know that the manufacturer is taking its fuel cell on board Energy Observer, which will be docked in Paris during the Paris Olympics and even afterwards. Toyota’s fuel cell is also used on EODev’s generators, over a hundred of which have already been sold. The same company also offers range extenders, which are used on a number of boats.
Together with NepTech, EODev has won an “Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 Mobilities” call for innovations in the New Mobilities & Active Mobilities category, “River” section. The two partners are to develop hydrogen-powered shuttles for passenger transport.
In his speech, Matt Harrison of Toyota Europe stressed that “all this was in line with the ambitions of the Paris region, which is placing hydrogen at the forefront of its strategy and wants to use 100% renewable energies by 2050”. He added: “France believes in hydrogen and so do we”.
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Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Mariem Ben Tili
