Passenger vehicles are quite peremptorily switching to electric traction in combination with lithium batteries, but representatives of the truck industry emphasize that in their market segment there is a place for cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. They have less mass, provide more range and replenish it faster.
In an interview with Reuters, Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum said:
“The fact is that we need both battery electric vehicles and hydrogen. The amount of electricity required by battery electric vehicles is so high that the load on the grid will be too high to power them.”
Daum said Daimler Truck will spend 15 billion euros over the next ten years to develop fuel cells.
A spokesperson for UK supermarket chain Asda, which operates a fleet of 1,000 diesel trucks, explained that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles do not require long refueling times and offer longer range. If the company had to use exclusively battery trucks, then their number would have to be significantly increased, taking into account the need to constantly charge part of the fleet.
There is a certain problem with such plans with the underdevelopment of the network of hydrogen filling stations, but in this respect market participants prefer to rely on government subsidies. Hydrogen fuel cell maker Symbio expects to sell 2 million vehicles annually by 2030. This manufacturer claims 10% of the respective market.
Another example is the calculations of the Italian transport company Fulvi Transporti, which has a fleet of 60 diesel mainline tractors capable of traveling 2,000 km in four days without refueling. If the company had to switch to battery trucks, the payload would be reduced by 15%, and the car would have to be charged every day. It would be necessary to increase the number of used trucks by at least 10%, since some of the trucks would be constantly idle. In the case of refrigeration equipment, part of the charge would have to be spent on cooling the cargo.
General Motors and Toyota are developing trucks based on hydrogen fuel cells, and Honda Motor management believes that this type of power plant is not particularly in demand in the passenger segment. With the support of the UK authorities, Toyota intends to build a prototype Hilux pickup truck with hydrogen fuel cells by the summer of this year. Such pickups are going to be developed with the support of the US authorities and General Motors Corporation. Volkswagen is not going to develop hydrogen fuel cells for its Traton cargo division, but if necessary, it is ready to rely on third-party power plants.
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