Toyota to supply fuel cells for 40 Scania trucks in hydrogen pilot due to start in 2027
Toyota will supply Scania with fuel cell systems for 40 trucks that logistics customers will run, and the first of them should be on the road in the first quarter of 2027.
- 40 vehicles
- 300 kW
- First quarter of 2027
What Happened
The plan covers 40 heavy-duty Scania vehicles fitted with Toyota fuel-cell hardware for a trial involving logistics customers. The two companies announced the arrangement on 7 September 2026, with statements issued from Södertälje in Sweden and Brussels in Belgium. The trucks sit inside Scania's Pilot Partner programme, which pairs the manufacturer with selected customers. Scania expects the first vehicles to begin work during the opening quarter of 2027.
300kW
Rated at 300 kW, the system is Toyota's latest third-generation design, packaged compactly for heavy-duty applications.
Scania's Pilot Partner scheme is built around testing new transport technologies with customers rather than in isolation. Each project is meant to show how a technology behaves inside a customer's daily operations. Scania says it looks at running efficiency and at the total cost of ownership, across uses that stretch from city distribution to long-haul haulage.
- Technical performance tested in real service
- Operational efficiency in customer fleets
- Total cost of ownership
- How fuel cell trucks cope with demanding heavy-duty transport
The partners disclose a collaboration to trial hydrogen fuel-cell trucks with logistics operators.
The first Scania fuel-cell electric trucks are due to begin operating.
Toyota has also joined a newly formed alliance set up to commercialise heavy-duty hydrogen trucks in Germany. That group intends to present its strategy the following week at the IAA Transportation show.
“to evaluate a wide range of sustainable transport technologies under real operating conditions”
Why this matters
Long-haul freight is hard to electrify with batteries alone, so hydrogen fuel cells are one of the pathways truck makers are testing. Scania's trial puts the technology into paying customers' daily operations, which is where questions about performance, running efficiency and cost get answered. Fleet operators, and the manufacturers supplying them, are the parties watching the results.
Terms in This Story
- Fuel cell
- A device that makes electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, releasing water rather than exhaust gases.
- Total cost of ownership
- The full cost of running a vehicle over its life, including purchase, fuel, maintenance and downtime.
- Heavy-duty
- A vehicle class covering large trucks and buses, typically used for freight and long-distance haulage.
A brief summary; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.