We have heard during the past few years that battery electric commercial trucks will ultimately replace the diesel-powered internal combustion engine for commercial trucks. At some point in the future this might be true for short and regional haul freight carriers, but what about the long-haul heavy truck segment?
Currently, the lack of charging infrastructure, range anxiety and the extreme weights associated with the batteries will be a significant deterrent to mass adoption of long-haul battery electric trucks.
However, hydrogen fuel cell trucks for long-haul applications appear to be a viable option in this segment. Even though fuel cell trucks currently have a greater range and lighter weight than battery electric trucks, they have the same problem as the electric trucks due to a lack of infrastructure.
According to a Hydrogen Council study, in 2019 there were approximately 170 operational hydrogen re-fueling stations in Europe with a goal of adding 3,700 stations by 2030. Increasing the number of re-fueling stations to that level seems like a lofty goal and the question is how will they possibly achieve this? The EU will likely provide subsidies for the infrastructure, but it will be the private sector that will likely drive this.
Earlier this year, Shell and Daimler announced the rollout of a hydrogen-based trucking initiative in which Shell will initially establish a hydrogen-refueling network which joins the Port of Rotterdam with Cologne and Hamburg, thus creating an infrastructure corridor.
Daimler plans to introduce hydrogen fuel cell trucks to customers starting in 2025. The corridor is expected to include 1,200 kilometers with 150 hydrogen re-fueling stations. Daimler plans to introduce approximately 5,000 heavy duty fuel cell trucks by 2030. This is a good initiative, but more of these types of ventures will be needed for mass adoption of hydrogen fuel cell trucks to take place.
In April 2021, Daimler and Volvo announced a joint venture to manufacture hydrogen fuel cells for trucks in Europe starting in 2025, and they called upon European Union policymakers to boost incentives for climate-neutral technologies. The plan is to begin testing fuel cell trucks in 2023 or 2024 and launch mass production by the end of this decade.
Daimler and Volvo are also pushing the EU to add incentives including taxing carbon and emissions trading to make up for the higher cost of climate-neutral trucks. Daimler and Volvo have also cited the need for 300 high-performance hydrogen refueling stations for heavy-duty vehicles by 2025 and 1,000 stations by 2030.
Both companies have stated that battery electric trucks will work for short haul applications, but hydrogen fuel cells should play a major role in the longer haul segment. It should be noted that Daimler and Volvo will continue to be competitors even though they share this joint venture.
The takeaway from these initiatives is that Europe is starting to organize and focus on the need for additional hydrogen fueling infrastructure to help meet their climate objectives for the next decade. PSR
Chris Fisher is Senior Commercial Vehicle Analyst at Power Systems Research
