MWhich energy source will the truck of the future use? With electricity, with hydrogen, with HVO diesel? The race is still open, only for inner-city distribution traffic the scales seem to be slowly tipping in favor of the purely electric truck, practically all manufacturers have corresponding offers in their range.
But long-distance transport remains a diesel domain – right? Because even 400 kilometers of electric range seems too little, also considering that during the forced break after a maximum of four and a half hours of driving there would be at least 45 minutes to charge. But it would need the necessary charging stations on the highways, which would have to be much larger than those for cars. Who should build it?
The way out could be hydrogen as an energy carrier. Daimler Truck and Volvo are working hard on fuel cell trucks. The aim here is to reform hydrogen in a fuel cell in order to generate electricity for an electric motor. Driving is therefore purely electric. There are no local emissions. Hydrogen (H2) can be refueled like natural gas. In order to put heavy traffic on this mainstay, investments in an H2 filling station network would also be necessary. There are already a few such devices. Toyota and Hyundai sell passenger cars with this technology.
The idea of simply using the hydrogen in the well-known combustion engine is obvious. This has also been researched for a long time. BMW wanted to make this solution ready for series production in the 1990s for its large sedans. Then hydrogen proved to be too expensive as a fuel, and consumption also seemed too high. The Dutch truck manufacturer Daf, which belongs to the American Paccar Group, has taken up this idea again and believes that it will be able to bring a hydrogen truck to series production by 2027. For Ron Borsboom, head of product development at Daf, the matter is clear: “The hydrogen combustion engine is clearly superior to the fuel cell.” It starts with the fact that a fuel cell truck, in contrast to the H2 drive, is significantly more expensive than a conventional truck may be.
The charm of the combustion engine is its simplicity. There is no need for an expensive fuel cell, a backup battery or the extensive cooling that is mandatory for the fuel cell. The vehicle electrics are also much easier to master and less complex. In addition, the fuel cell needs pure hydrogen, a combustion engine also runs with “dirty” H2. Despite this commitment to the combustion engine, Daf is also working on a fuel cell solution, but the American mother is taking over this part.
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