Toyota is jumping into a big partnership with two of its biggest rivals to build the next generation of clean engines. The Japanese carmaker just signed a deal to join “cellcentric,” a joint venture originally started by Volvo and Daimler Truck back in 2020. Together, these three giants want to figure out how to make hydrogen fuel cells work for heavy-duty trucks.
This team-up focuses on the guts of the engine. The companies plan to collaborate on designing and manufacturing the actual fuel cell units. Toyota brings a lot to the table here, having spent more than 30 years perfecting hydrogen systems for passenger cars. Now, they want to take that knowledge and scale it up for massive commercial vehicles that travel long distances.
Toyota’s CEO, Koji Sato, sounds very optimistic about the deal. He recently said he is grateful to work with Daimler and Volvo to help build a “hydrogen society.” He believes that by combining their expertise in big trucks with Toyota’s history in smaller cars, they can create one of the best fuel cell systems in the world.
This move is actually quite surprising because most of the car industry is moving in the opposite direction. While everyone else is obsessed with electric batteries, many companies have completely given up on hydrogen. For example, Stellantis—the company that owns Jeep and Chrysler—shut down its hydrogen program last year. They decided the technology just wasn’t worth the investment anymore.
General Motors also walked away from hydrogen in 2025, choosing to focus all its energy on battery-powered electric vehicles. Even Toyota seemed to be losing interest just a year ago. They had started to pivot away from commercial trucks to focus on using hydrogen for factory machines instead. This new partnership shows they’ve changed their minds and are ready to give big trucks another shot.
By joining cellcentric, Toyota is betting that hydrogen still has a future, especially for long-haul shipping where heavy batteries aren’t always practical. If this trio succeeds, we might see hydrogen-powered semis on the road sooner than expected. It’s a bold gamble in an industry that has mostly moved on to other things.
