Toyota Motor breaks ground on fuel cell R&D, production base’s first phase in Beijing

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Oct. 24, Toyota Motor broke ground on the first phase of its fuel cell R&D and production base in Beijing, marking a major step towards the introduction and promotion of fuel cell technologies in China, the Japanese automaker announced via its WeChat account.

The project is managed by United Fuel Cell System R&D (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (“FCRD”) and Toyota SinoHytec Fuel Cell Co.,Ltd. (“FCTS”), two Beijing-based joint ventures of Toyota Motor Corporation. It involves a total investment of around 8 billion yen ($53.718 million) and covers an area of 110,000 square meters in Beijing Economic Technological Development Area. Upon completion, such facilities as production and testing lines for fuel cells and an R&D center will be built under the project to work on manufacturing and R&D of fuel cell systems.

Photo credit: Toyota China

Toyota Motor said the new fuel cell base will adopt the TPS (Toyota Production System) to form an intelligent production mechanism and satisfy market demands flexibly.

As part of efforts to develop fuel cell technologies in China, Toyota set up FCRD in 2020 with the five companies of FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, GAC Group, BAIC Group, and SinoHytec, and established FCTS in 2021 with SinoHytec. To be specific, FCRD focuses on technology R&D, while FCTS emphasizes production and market promotion.

Based on Chinese market demands, the two joint ventures have together launched two types of fuel cell system, namely, the TL Power 100 and the TL Power 80, both of which are capable of industry-leading high power and density, and a super-long service life of over 30,000 hours. They are seeing some other products available for commercial vehicle applications under development.