What Hino and REE’s partnership could say about Toyota’s EV future
By Phil Royle – April 27, 2021
Hino Motors, it was announced today, is partnering with REE to provide “new value to society through next-generation commercial mobility.” While this collaboration will aid Hino in its corporate “Environmental Challenge” endeavors and offer a proven client for REE, the pairing might hint at something fairly important about Toyota.
Reportedly second only to Isuzu Trucks when it comes to truck and diesel engine production, Hino is known for work trucks ranging from its light-duty box truck to its heavy-duty 700 Series application. Hino is also a supplier of diesel engines with quite a motor array, from a turbocharged 4.0L four-cylinder diesel to a turbo six-cylinder diesel with a 12.9L displacement. These motors are targeted at applications not only in work trucks but also buses.
Hino’s 155 Series delivery truck is ideal for electrification. (Image courtesy Hino Motors)
Hino is also involved with the Dakar Rally, with a team wheeling a Hino 500 Series Ranger through the sand and muck.
REE, meanwhile, has been developing its REEcorner and REEboard EV systems, which push the drive components to the corners of the electrified structure, offering a flat, blank canvas for companies to build upon. Per REE:
We created the REEboard with a single goal in mind, to enable the industry with a perfect fit solution for any mission-specific application. The REEboard’s scalable technology allows it to carry a very large variety of different permutations without the need to design a new platform for each vehicle type – saving major costs and time.
REE’s board design with the electric components pushed to the corners is an ideal starting platform for delivery and autonomous vehicles. (Image courtesy REE)
Part of Hino’s “Environment Challenge 2025” and “Environmental Challenge 2050” involves reducing carbon emissions, although its own documentation never mentions EVs. Instead, Hino’s goals have included automated driving as an emissions solution:
By Introducing automated driving technology to make following vehicles driverless on the condition of platooning, enhancing fuel efficiency, to achieve and reducing CO2 emissions. Achieving mass transportation using consolidated trailers will greatly help to solve the shortage of drivers in the logistics industry.
It should be said that Hino does offer two diesel-hybrid Class 5 trucks boasting a claimed 25% fuel cost reduction.
Now, however, it seems Hino is adventuring beyond its company credo via a partnership with REE that, on the face of things, seems quite obvious, especially considering REE has announced designs for five potentially autonomous platforms that fit into the electrified delivery and autonomous market. In fact, REE’s largest platform, the P7, offers a claimed 15,400 GVW, which largely aligns with Hino’s entry-level 155 cab-over truck.
Here’s how Hino defines its new partnership, which is slated to produce prototypes come 2022:
The next-generation commercial mobility solution to be jointly developed by Hino and REE will be comprised of a modular platform (powered by REE) that will carry a customized Mobility Service Module on top. The Mobility Service Module - which will carry passengers, goods and deliver services - would address a wide variety of current and future applications aligned with customer requirements, aimed to provide new value to society, and will be enhanced with data-driven services. In addition, the Mobility Service Module can be easily detached from the EV platform and once detached it can serve as an independent, stand-alone unit - making services and goods easily accessible to society, leaving the platform to be operated separately and continue on its next mission. This will not only be applied toward Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and delivery segments but this modular design could also offer solutions for completely new applications. Leveraging the REEcorner modules, the flat chassis and the detachable Mobility Service Module will meet the diverse needs of consumers while contributing to more efficient utilization of customers' business resources. The specialized EV chassis to be jointly developed by Hino and REE will leverage proprietary REEcorner technology, which packs critical vehicle components into a single system positioned between the wheel and the chassis.
So what does this have to do with Toyota? Hino is actually a division of Toyota, with Toyota’s other brands including, among others, Lexus, Daihatsu, TRD, and Gazoo Racing, and just two weeks ago, Toyota unveiled its first modern EV concept, the bZ4X, which will ride on Toyota’s e-TNGA platform and be produced in conjunction with Subaru. Yet what Toyota didn’t unveil were technical details about the bZ4X’s drivetrain, battery, or chassis. This was odd considering the “concept” bZ4X appeared production-ready both inside and out, right down to functional side mirrors and a keyhole in the driver’s door.
Toyota’s recently announced bZ4X EV concept appears production ready, but the company’s lack of EV technical specifications leaves plenty of questions. (Image courtesy Toyota)
This brings us back to Hino’s partnership with REE. While REE has been largely vague about whether its REEboard architecture actually includes battery integration (the company claims as little as 42 kWh for its P1 platform and as much as 100 kWh on its P7), at least REE has produced concepts that move under their own power.
Considering Toyota stated that its bZ4X will be released roughly one year from now, that indicates Toyota must either be well on its way in EV underpinnings or is actively partnering with another company. Yet with Hino’s REE partnership, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that Toyota’s EV technology isn’t as robust, versatile, or production-ready as GM’s Ultium platform or Hyundai Group’s E-GMP underpinnings.
With Hino partnering with REE rather than its parent company, the question becomes: How far along is Toyota’s EV technology? Will the Toyota bZ4X fall victim to what is all too common in the EV world with delayed production, leaving Toyota’s various divisions – like Hino – to fend for themselves in the coming EV “quickening?” Time, as they say, will tell, but right now, there are more questions than answers.
(Main image courtesy REE)
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