CaetanoBus SA launches first hydrogen bus with Toyota fuel cell technology

Toyota announced that it has delivered and integrated its first fuel cell stack into the new city bus by CaetanoBus SA, the H2.City Gold, which was presented in a world premiere at Busworld 2019 in Brussels.

This marks the first concrete step of a collaboration announced in September 2018 by Toyota's European subsidiary, Toyota Motor Europe, and CaetanoBus SA, a major Portuguese bus engineering and production company, to build hydrogen fuel cell city buses.

“Thanks to their longstanding relationship with Toyota, their understanding of market requirements and their technical capabilities, CaetanoBus was the ideal partner to start the development of our powertrain sales activities in Europe. I look forward to receiving the first market feedback from this initiative and the expansion of our supply business of hydrogen fuel cell technology,” said Dr Johan van Zyl, TME President and CEO.

Working since 2018, the teams at TME and CaetanoBus were able to develop the new hydrogen fuel cell bus, another step towards a hydrogen society, thanks to the strong effort and technical capability of the engineers while demonstrating the good adaptability of Toyota's fuel cell technology beyond the Mirai passenger car.

The stack is located on the bus's roof and is coupled to 5 hydrogen tanks with a total capacity of 37.5 kg, giving the bus a range of up to 400km. It can be refuelled with hydrogen pressurised at 350 bar in under 9 minutes, and its only emissions are water vapour.

This gives city bus operators a zero-emission solution without compromise in operation due to charging time or high load conditions. The trial bus will be operated in various European cities over the next months, before commercialisation mid 2020.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Toyota. Successfully expanding our partnership to fuel cells for our new city bus in Europe allows us both to demonstrate complementary technology and engineering capability that is world class. This project will enable cities to rethink their future mobility and enhance quality of life,” said José Ramos, President of Salvador Caetano Indústria.

In line with its vision of a decarbonised society - as stated in its 2050 environmental challenge, Toyota is promoting the application of its hydrogen fuel cell technology beyond passenger cars, including heavy duty trucks, small delivery trucks, forklifts and buses.