LONDON — A consortium led by automotive large Toyota will obtain hundreds of thousands in funding to develop a hydrogen gas cell pickup truck within the U.Okay.

In an announcement Friday, Toyota mentioned the gas cell-powered prototype of its Hilux pickup could be developed at its plant in Burnaston, within the East Midlands of England.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK is heading up the consortium, which is being backed by £5.7 million (round $7 million) of trade funding and £5.6 million from the U.Okay. authorities. Thatcham Analysis, D2H, ETL and Ricardo are additionally concerned within the venture.

Though the initiative is being led by TMUK, Toyota mentioned “technical assist” would come from Toyota Motor Europe R&D.

“Inside the scope of the funding bid, preliminary prototype Hilux automobiles can be produced at Burnaston throughout 2023,” it added. “As soon as profitable efficiency outcomes have been secured, the intention is to arrange the automobile for small sequence manufacturing.”

Gas cell expertise includes hydrogen from a tank mixing with oxygen, which in flip produces electrical energy. Because the U.S. Division of Vitality’s Various Fuels Knowledge Heart notes: “Gas cell electrical automobiles emit solely water vapor and heat air, producing no tailpipe emissions.”

The unique model of the Hilux dates again to the Sixties, and several other iterations of the automobile have been developed since. The U.Okay. authorities mentioned a gas cell Hilux could be “best to be used in remoted settings the place electrical automobile charging is impractical.”

Friday’s information represents Toyota’s newest transfer within the sector. The agency began engaged on the event of fuel-cell automobiles again in 1992. In 2014, it launched the Mirai, a hydrogen gas cell sedan.

Alongside the Mirai, Toyota has had a hand within the growth of bigger hydrogen gas cell automobiles. These embrace a bus referred to as the Sora and prototypes of industrial quality vehicles. In addition to gas cells, Toyota is taking a look at utilizing hydrogen in inner combustion engines.

Whereas the enterprise is understood for its hybrid and hydrogen gas cell automobiles, additionally it is making an attempt to make strikes within the more and more aggressive battery-electric market, the place companies like Tesla and Volkswagen are jostling for place.

This has not been with out its challenges and in June 2022, Toyota issued a security recall for greater than 2,000 of its all-electric SUV, the bZ4X.

The corporate could also be seeking to make investments billions in EV battery manufacturing, nevertheless it has additionally confused it “will proceed to make each effort to flexibly meet the wants” of shoppers “in all nations and areas by providing a number of powertrains and offering as many choices as potential.”

The U.Okay. needs to cease the sale of recent diesel and gasoline vehicles and vans by 2030. It’ll require, from 2035, all new vehicles and vans to have zero-tailpipe emissions. The European Union — which the U.Okay. left on Jan. 31, 2020 — is pursuing related targets.