Trucks, Buses in Japan Going Electrified

August 14, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese truck and bus makers are focusing more on supplying electrified vehicles as the government is pushing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

Hino Motors Ltd., a commercial vehicle arm of Toyota Motor Corp., plans to launch its first model of a large diesel-electric hybrid truck in summer next year, while stopping selling vehicles powered only by diesel engines by 2050.

"Hybrid will be the main technology for electrified commercial vehicles for the time being, as they need to balance environmental performance with usability," Hino Executive Vice President Shin Endo said.

Commercial vehicles need to carry large amounts of goods and passengers. For pure-electric models, more batteries are needed to extend driving ranges, but they become heavier in weight as a result, leading to lower load capacity.

Hino's hybrid truck will have 15 pct better mileage than conventional diesel trucks, utilizing artificial intelligence to predict road gradients in order to charge batteries efficiently on downhill sections.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp., a unit of German auto giant Daimler AG, plans to release in 2020 a next-generation model of the pure-electric truck it launched last year.

Mitsubishi Fuso President and Chief Executive Officer Hartmut Schick expressed his company's intention to focus on pure-electric vehicles, saying it has no plans to advance the development of hybrids.

Isuzu Motors Ltd. is slated to launch a pure-electric truck model on a trial basis by the end of this year.

Isuzu also plans to commercialize a hybrid bus in 2019 that is being jointly developed by Hino.

Hino is also cooperating with other makers, including Toyota, to promote the development of pure-electric vehicles.

The Japanese government has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per vehicle by 80 pct by 2050 from the 2010 level. Jiji Press