In the ongoing conversation on cleaner fuels, Toyota has been a long-standing hydrogen advocate as the clean energy of the future. But now recent developments show that the automaker is changing its plan when it comes to hydrogen.
During the 2025 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Seminar, Toyota revealed what it wants to do. Toyota said that it was shifting its focus away from passenger cars (like this one) to commercial vehicles, industrial applications, and power generation.
Toyota takes a sober look at hydrogen
The company’s hydrogen promise is still there but is just getting a bit more pragmatic and strategic. Hydrogen fuel cell technology has not adopted mass consumer usage in mass-market vehicles. The infrastructure challenges and cost have been the main factor in stopping consumers from switching.
Toyota is now accepting these realities and so it is expanding its hydrogen vision beyond just personal mobility. Toyota’s new strategy really does focus mainly on heavy-duty trucks, stationary power, and industrial applications. Toyota feels that these markets will see more of hydrogen’s benefits.
Hydrogen trucks can refuel and drive long distances without having to carry the weight of large batteries around. Toyota expects hydrogen to help to bridge the gap in markets where electric batteries don’t make sense.
Toyota is also developing hydrogen’s potential to produce power. Fuel cell systems can be utilized to produce stable electricity to fuel buildings and off-grid locations. Toyota has already started installing these systems in actual real-world uses.
Toyota builds the Tri-Gen facility in Long Beach
Perhaps Toyota’s biggest hydrogen initiative is likely its Tri-Gen facility in Long Beach, California. This facility will takes renewable biogas and convert it into three products: hydrogen, electricity, and water.
Every day, it produces 1,200 kilograms of hydrogen, 2.3 megawatts of electricity, and 1,400 gallons of water. The produced hydrogen is used to fuel around 30 fuel-cell trucks at the port.
The Tri-Gen plant is just one of Toyota’s bigger ideas (this might be the biggest though). Instead of leveraging available infrastructure, Toyota is actually opting to construct hydrogen ecosystems from the ground up. It is trying to create similar projects in other parts of the world to show hydrogen’s practicality in other industries.
So of course, by default, one of the biggest focus areas in Toyota’s new hydrogen plan is trucking. Heavy trucks have a number of their own challenges for reducing emissions. Battery electric trucks take a long time to recharge and require huge battery packs, which take away from cargo capacity.
But Hydrogen fuel cell trucks can offer a better alternative. They can be refueled in approximately 15 to 20 minutes, similar to diesel trucks. They also have extended driving ranges.
Toyota has been testing hydrogen-powered trucks in the United States for quite some time now. The results have actually been quite good. The automaker is now scaling up to bring fuel cell trucks into the mainstream. Partnerships with truck manufacturers and logistics companies are helping along the way.
Going a bit further than just mobility
Toyota’s hydrogen ambitions are for so much more than just its cars. The company is developing stationary fuel cell systems that will power buildings and factories.
One of these systems is already powering a Pacific Northwest hospital as backup power in the event of an emergency. Another Toyota fuel cell generator powered the Detroit Christmas tree lighting. Toyota also partnered with the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado to use a one-megawatt stationary fuel cell system.
The project showed the ability of hydrogen to provide clean and reliable energy to large buildings. Toyota sees such systems as critical to its future plans for hydrogen.
While promising, hydrogen still has quite a few hurdles to cross. The biggest one is infrastructure. Hydrogen fueling facilities are not everywhere, and it will be difficult for customers to adopt hydrogen vehicles.
Toyota is working with governments and industry stakeholders to expand hydrogen infrastructure. It is convinced that focused investment in a few areas will help with broader adoption.
A second problem is expense. Production, storage, and distribution of hydrogen is still just so pricy. Toyota is investing in advancing technologies so hydrogen will become less expensive. It expects the costs to drop once the technology ramps up and expands, then the price will begin to rival alternative energy.
