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Quick. What year was the Toyota Prius introduced?

Any year after the turn of the century seems about right. But we’d be wrong. That first mass-produced hybrid vehicle was introduced in Japan in 1997, and worldwide in 2000.

Toyota developed it to be the car of the 21st century. More than 15 million have been sold so far, in 90 global markets, with 2023 seeing a major redesign. Fun fact; that’s millions of Prii, the specific plural given to the little liftback by a public vote.

Craig Scott has a hard time believing it’s been more than a quarter of a century, and he’s the general manager and director of fuel cell solutions for Toyota Motor North America.

But to be fair, as his title indicates, his focus has been on hydrogen vehicles. He’s been working with Joe Adams, chief engineer, and his crew at Kenworth on proof of concept in trucking, where fuel cell powered, over-the-road freight is about to become reality. Among the keys to success was boots-on the-throttle feedback from the trucking community and an approach modeled on lessons learned years ago in developing the Prius, Scott said.

Shore to Store, ZE-style

Terminal Island is a mostly man made land mass off the southern California coast. It is home to a small residential population, and adjacent to the densely populated San Pedro. What happens there, especially air quality impacts, affects nearly 100,000 people.

The island also houses seven major shipping container terminals and six intermodal rail yards that make up the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest in the U.S. About 10 million containers move through it annually. Higher demand for shipped goods, the potential loss of rail service, and the simple convenience of direct-to-site delivery are skewing logistics more and more to the trucking side.

“There’s no doubt that trucks are going to be the main means to move goods for a long time to come. There’s no other way for last mile delivery, or even cross-country. Rail is stressed out,” Scott said, thinking about both capacity and aging infrastructure.

At the port, 10 hydrogen electric Class 8, heavy duty truck prototypes, developed by Kenworth and integrated with Toyota’s fuel cell drive technology, were handed over to 10 drivers who used them for 12 months on their regular routes. There was confidence that they would come to love them, even if it took some time. Driver feedback informed design because nothing is more important than making sure innovation is consumer-friendly.

Freight operators Southern Counties Express (SCE), Total Transportation Services, Inc. (TTSI), Toyota Logistic Services (TLS) and UPS participated, using the …