Applause rang out as Daimler Truck Holding AG’s hydrogen-powered, zero-emission truck crossed the finish line in Berlin on Tuesday morning, after completing a record-breaking 1,047km journey on a single tank — but in the race to decarbonize long-haul trucking, the niche technology is still stuck in the slow lane.
The Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s GenH2 truck started its demonstration run at the group’s factory in Woerth am Rhein on Monday afternoon, near the border with France. The prototype truck made the trip fully loaded on only one fill of liquid hydrogen, similar to what a diesel-powered truck can do.
Unlike planet-warming diesel, the hydrogen fuel cell technology used in the truck emits only water vapor.
Photo: AFP
“You’re showing that a heavy load can be transported over a long distance in a sustainable manner,” Rhineland-Palatinate State Secretary for Economic Affairs Petra Dick-Walther said at the departure ceremony.
Daimler Truck, one of the world’s biggest truck makers, said the feat of cracking the 1,000km range marked “another milestone” for hydrogen-powered driving.
However, the technology has plenty of hurdles to overcome before going mainstream.
Hydrogen fuel is produced through water electrolysis, but is only considered “green” if the electricity required for the process is obtained from renewables such as wind or solar power. Hydrogen produced using coal or natural gas is more widely available, but less environmentally friendly.
Technical challenges, high costs and a lack of infrastructure have all slowed the advance of clean hydrogen.
German firms such as Daimler Truck and engineering giant Robert Bosch GmbH are nevertheless betting that hydrogen has a role to play in slashing road transport emissions, alongside battery-powered electric vehicles.
“To decarbonize transport, we need both,” said Andreas Gorbach, head of technology at Daimler Truck who drove the GenH2 across the finish line.
The “sweet spot” for hydrogen trucks lies in particularly demanding long-distance haulage, whereas battery-electric trucks do well on plannable routes with plenty of charging options, he said.
Daimler Truck is aiming for series production of hydrogen trucks in “the second half of the decade,” he added.
However, the hydrogen breakthrough would depend on two major factors: the rollout of refueling stations, and “the availability of green energy at a competitive cost,” he said.
Under EU rules, automakers have to cut emissions of new trucks by 30 percent by 2030 compared with 2019 levels, but the European Commission earlier this year said it was eyeing tougher cuts of 45 percent by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.
On top of the regulatory pressures, truck manufacturers face growing international competition as the battle to supply zero-emissions trucks heats up.
A recent study commissioned by campaign group Transport and Environment (T&E), European truck makers “could lose 11 percent of the EU market to international electric rivals by 2035” if they do not go green faster, with the likes of Tesla Inc and China’s BYD Co (比亞迪) snapping at their heels.
US company Nikola Corp, a Bosch customer, has already begun mass production of its hydrogen-powered heavy-duty truck in the US, benefiting from climate subsidies under US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. In August, Nikola reported a total of 202 orders from 18 customers.
To share out the costs of a hydrogen rollout, Daimler Truck has partnerships with other truck makers and energy companies such as Shell PLC, TotalEnergies SE and BP PLC to install refueling stations in Europe and the US.
Bringing down the price tag of expensive hydrogen would be key to its success.
Mercedes-Benz Trucks head of product engineering Rainer Mueller-Finkeldei said that the infrastructure would be in place by 2030 and that the total cost of buying and operating hydrogen trucks would eventually be “similar” to diesel trucks.
However, T&E said it could take until 2040 for hydrogen trucks to reach cost parity with diesel.
Both would be more expensive than battery electric trucks by then, its calculations showed.
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