HALLERED, Sweden — The plume of white smoke from Volvo’s fuel cell truck matched the white clouds within the Scandinavian sky. Stand too close and you are feeling the descending mist of water vapor.
The hydrogen tanks sweat just droplets at first. Then comes the discharge of a couple of liter of water, roughly the quantity the 100-kilowatt fuel cell produces per kilometer traveled.
On a spin across the track at Volvo’s high-security proving ground about an hour east of its Gothenburg headquarters in southern Sweden, the corporate’s first fuel cell-equipped test truck performed admirably. There was little compressor noise from the oversize radiator. Most significantly, it emitted no planet-warming carbon dioxide or nitrogen oxides from burning fossil fuels.
Volvo demonstrated its fuel cell truck lower than five years in any case but shunning the technology in favor of battery-based electrification.
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Conscious decision or FOMO?
Whether a conscious decision to cover all of the bases in zero-emissions technology or a fear of missing out on a possible long-haul alternative to diesel pursued by some competitors, Volvo paid archrival Daimler Truck $650 million in 2021 for a 50% stake in a fuel cell manufacturing three way partnership called cellcentric.
Daimler desired to defray no less than among the cost of fuel cell development. It had spent billions on fuel cells for passenger vehicles before abandoning the trouble within the last decade.
“Six or seven years ago, it might be unheard of to partner together with your fiercest competitor,” said Johan Lunden, Volvo senior vp of product strategy. “But that’s really what this transition is about.”
Only the fuel cell stack produced through the enterprise is common for 2 of Europe’s largest manufacturers. In terms of selling fuel cell trucks within the second half of the last decade, search for distinct products. Volvo and Daimler are at various stages of testing.
One among Volvo’s preproduction prototypes showed its stuff at Hallered for a hosted visit of trucking journalists. A second truck with cellcentric’s updated twin 150kW fuel cell stacks is undergoing hot-weather testing in Spain.
It’s tough being green
After long being thought to be a decade away, fuel cells are making significant progress. South Korea’s Hyundai has delivered 10 of 30 Xcient fuel cell trucks for pilot use on the Port of Oakland in California. The remaining are expected in October. Paccar is working with Toyota on commercializing the automaker’s second-generation fuel cell stack for Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks in 2025.
Startups Nikola, Hyzon Motors and Quantron are within the early days of manufacturing trucks and firming up hydrogen fueling infrastructure. Engine maker Cummins is pouring a whole lot of hundreds of thousands into electrolyzer production. Tier 1 supply leader Robert Bosch makes and licenses fuel cell technology to Nikola and develops electrolysis components for electrolyzers.
Volvo executives are clear that hydrogen as a transportation fuel only works if it comes from renewable sources like wind and solar or is generated from an electrolyzer. All three are plentiful in Sweden and a few parts of Europe but less so elsewhere. Hydrogen itself could also be clean but when its feedstock is natural gas or methane, well-to-wheel emissions measurements suffer.
While they will run cleaner for longer distances and refuel more quickly than battery-electric trucks, hydrogen production consumes way more energy than batteries.
Volvo: 75,000 electric trucks by 2030
Volvo’s goal of fifty% of its recent trucks being electric by 2030 is an enormous lift. It’s going to require about 75,000 trucks in comparison with 6,000 it has delivered in 42 countries thus far. It plans to sell only zero-emission trucks by 2040, with all of its trucks being carbon neutral by 2050 taking substitute cycles into consideration.
A relatively small variety of those trucks shall be equipped with fuel cells. Some could have hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines if European and other governments follow through on indications they’ll classify them as zero-emission powertrains. Technically, hydrogen ICE emits some NOx emissions but the quantity is minimal in comparison with diesel.
“We see that many segments will proceed to make use of combustion engines in the longer term,” said Jessica Sandstrom, Volvo Trucks senior vp of product management and sustainability. “It doesn’t mean it would be the inner combustion engine we now have today.”
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Volvo specializing in battery-electric trucks
The corporate’s decarbonization efforts deal with battery-electric trucks. Volvo already offers six of them from a 38,000-pound delivery truck to a 90,000-pound rigid body in Europe to the 80,000-pound Class 8 VNR Electric day cab in america.
Volvo began series production of three electric models — the FH, FM and FMX — for Europe last week in Ghent, Belgium. It’s the fourth Volvo factory constructing electric trucks, including Latest River Valley in Dublin, Virginia.
“That’s the product we foresee can have the biggest volume over time,” Sandstrom said. “It is just probably the most efficient solution. If we’re going to have the option to make the transformation from depending on fossil fuels to a fossil-free society, we’d like to make sure that that we save energy on the best way.”
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Volvo’s construction equipment business is making some battery-electric machinery and electrification began with its bus business as early as 2005. Even the Volvo Penta marine engine unit has a path toward battery-electric propulsion.
The pace of growth will track with government incentives for purchase and infrastructure, said Roger Alm, Volvo Trucks president.
“Here in Europe we now have seen that the markets that take off first are those where there are governmental subsidies or incentives,” he said.
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