Toyota And Partners Announce Plans to Build a New Hydrogen-Based City of The Future in Japan

Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota)  have commenced discussions with various partners over building a city for a new future that makes use of hydrogen and technologies. Fukushima Prefecture is focusing on hydrogen, and has undertaken to build one of the first models for a future hydrogen society.

Toyota’s partners include Hino Motors, Isuzu Motors and DENSO Corporation.

The partners will first build an implementation model for a city with a population of 300,000 people, before embarking on a challenge to apply the model to similar-sized cities nationwide.

The new city will make use of hydrogen produced at multiple sites in the prefecture, including Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R), introduce several fuel cell (FC) trucks for deliveries, optimise operational management and hydrogen refilling schedules through the use of connected technologies, and carry out energy management that caters to the prevailing local conditions.

Toyota, and their partners will also operate FC kitchen cars and medical cars, and use hydrogen at stores and plants in Fukushima Prefecture to reduce supply chain carbon emissions.

In a press release, Toyota states: ‘Following the announcement of Japan’s 2050 Carbon Neutral Goal, there is a growing need for concrete initiatives aimed at building sustainable societies that can be passed on to future generations. Fukushima Prefecture, Toyota, and their partners share this conviction; to this end, they intend to steadily promote the realization of one of the world’s first hydrogen societies, and of carbon neutrality, by expanding their spheres of cooperation, and taking advantage of the diverse regional characteristics of Fukushima Prefecture’.

Toyota has already announced a partnership with ENEOS to explore the utilisation and application of hydrogen energy at its Woven City initiative in Japan.