Truck merger partners struggle to present united front

A proposed combination of Japanese truckmakers Mitsubishi Fuso (MFTBC) and Hino with investment from their parents, Germany’s Daimler Truck and Japan’s Toyota, is as much as 18 months away from consummation. The press conference announcing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the merger suggests the partners are not entirely on the same page as each other, or even internally consistent, on whether they are definitively backing hydrogen as the main solution for low-carbon commercial vehicles, or whether a BEV alternative should be pursued in parallel.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, vocal hydrogen champion Toyota is backing that horse. “Initiatives in the hydrogen area are a major theme on which our four companies will focus and cooperate," says Toyota’s CEO Koji Sato. “We have also been working on… the development of a hydrogen infrastructure to promote the widespread use of these technologies”.