Parallel to this, Iveco is also collaborating with Hyundai Motor Company. The Italian group joined forces with the South Korean corporation to exhibit a concept vehicle for a hydrogen-powered version of the Iveco eDAILY. The vehicle comes equipped with a battery pack from FPT Industrial offering 37 kilowatt-hours and 12 kilograms of 700-bar hydrogen as energy storage that allow it to cover 350 kilometers (215 miles) using the 90-kilowatt fuel cell power system from Hyundai, plus 50 kilometers (31 miles) in purely electric driving mode (electric engine: 140 kilowatts).

Daimler Truck presses on with LH₂

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At Daimler Truck, meanwhile, engineers are persevering with liquefied hydrogen (LH₂) and the use of fuel cell stacks produced by cellcentric, which is now working on its gigafactory in Weilheim, Germany (2 x 150 kilowatts; see H2-international, August 2022). A refueling station for this cryogenic compressed gas is also in the offing. For the moment, the exhibited long-distance model of the GenH2 Truck remains just a prototype.

The liquefied hydrogen tanks in this case are built into the side of the chassis while the cooling unit along with the high-voltage battery (72 kilowatt-hours of installed capacity; 50 kilowatt-hours of usable capacity) is positioned behind the cab. When it comes to permissions, the GenH2 Truck doesn’t face any problems so long as certain conditions such as the journey range are met, H2-international was told.

Christian Mohrdieck, CEO of cellcentric, explained that the fuel cell systems produced in Weilheim would not just be supplied to its two joint venture partners Daimler Truck and Volvo Truck, but also to Rolls-Royce, which is using them in stationary solutions developed by its mtu brand. Thanks to these three customers, cellcentric has the backing it needs to scale up and thereby reduce unit costs.

Order of 5,000 hydrogen trucks has massive impact

Up until now, there have only been eight 350-bar refueling stations suitable for hydrogen buses or trucks out of a total of 95 hydrogen stations in Germany. Intent on changing this situation by intensifying their cooperation are two self-starters from the north of the country. To this end, Clean Logistics has sold 5,000 new hydrogen trucks to GP Joule Hydrogen which in return plans to build 150 hydrogen filling stations over five years. Both companies want to become joint “enablers,” sorting out both the infrastructure and the vehicles for potential customers, wherever they may be.

André Steinau, who heads up eFarming and GP Joule Hydrogen, said: “We are now witnessing the first trucks. Now the infrastructure for them needs to come too.” In conversation with H2-international he explained there are companies that make a living financing such projects. The role of GP Joule Hydrogen is to bring those that have the money together with the users, he said. Principally it’s about taking the eFarm concept, which has enjoyed great initial success in northern Germany, and rolling it out to the rest of the country, he continued.

Furthermore, he promised that hydrogen vehicles with a 700-bar tank will also be able to refuel at their stations, though the tank will only be two-thirds full, while the fuel will be around EUR 1.50 cheaper than at 700-bar stations.

Andreas Rimkus, the hydrogen representative from the SPD parliamentary group, had the following to say on the matter during watt_2.0 in Husum: “The announcement of 5,000 trucks made a real splash.” Together with Kurt-Christof von Knobelsdorff he affirmed that the idea is to enable hydrogen for the entire transportation industry since this is the sector with the greatest willingness to pay. Not that anything is likely to discourage hydrogen provision for this sector anyhow, it was said.

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