VIDEO: Watch fuel cell Toyota truck batter diesel big rig in drag race

Toyota has released a video of its experimental Project Portal truck going head-to-head with a conventional diesel-powered semi-truck to demonstrate how much quicker its hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle is pulling the same 16-tonne payload.

Featuring two fuel stacks from its small Mirai sedan and a 12kWh lithium ion battery the large Toyota truck relies on electric motors that, combined, produces 493kW/1830Nm.

Launching convincingly off the line, diesel power doesn’t even come close to the Toyota truck, whose only emission is water vapour.

Part of the fuel cell truck's performance advantage is it doesn't rely on a conventional transmission as the motors transmit their power to the road using a single gear.

There is a catch though. As well as the lack of availability of hydrogen fuel, when pulling its full 36-tonne payload, the Project Portal truck only has a range of 320km. Its diesel-rival, meanwhile, depending on tank size will easily be able to cover almost five times that on a single refill.

In Japan Toyota is already using its scalable fuel cell technology it developed on the Mirai in zero-emission buses. The Project Portal truck will now undertake a feasibility study at the US ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in cooperation with the oil company Shell that has recently announced it would be expanding the number of hydrogen filling stations in the Californian State.