Revolutionary Road: Electric Lorries Set to Outpace Hydrogen Trucks!

Electric trucks are poised to surpass hydrogen-powered heavy lorries in Europe, potentially relegating the latter to niche markets, despite once being hailed as the future of emissions-free road transport.

In western Norway, on the outskirts of Trondheim, the food wholesaler Asko has been testing four hydrogen fuel cell cars supplied by the Swedish company Scania since 2020.

Experiences so far have been mixed.

Integration problems, faulty parts and a forced shutdown after an explosion at a charging station near Oslo have meant the vehicles have only been in use 30 to 40 percent of the time.

“They are not on the road as much as we would have liked. That’s the least we can say,” admits Asko project manager Roger Saether.

“But we are confident that everything will work out in the end.”

When they are running, the trucks, which have a range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), deliver supermarkets to a wide area.

For closer deliveries, the group uses battery-powered vehicles, which nowadays have a shorter range.

This division of roles – hydrogen cars for heavy loads over long distances, electric cars for lighter loads over short distances – has long been standard among industry experts due to the advantages and disadvantages of each technology.

But things change.

“Now we see that, unlike a few years ago, electric cars and buses actually play an increasingly large role, and we also see them playing a very important role in the decarbonization process,” Fedor Unterlohner said. , cargo manager at the NGO Transport and Environment.

Electric Avenue

Heavy commercial vehicles account for six percent of the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Brussels has required the industry to reduce its emissions by 45 percent from 2019 levels by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.

According to a study by German authorities last year, truck manufacturers expect 63 percent of new trucks sold in Europe in 2030 to be “zero-emission” vehicles.

Electric cars are expected to make up the lion’s share, 85 percent.

This is because previous worries about electric cars have been removed because, unlike hydrogen, electric car technology has benefited from advances in the electric car industry.

Area?

Most heavy trucks in Europe drive less than 800 kilometers per day, which could soon be within reach of electric batteries – especially given the tightly regulated breaks that drivers can take to charge their vehicles.

Does the weight of the battery limit the payload?

The amount of energy stored in batteries continues to improve so that the weight difference compared to a diesel car is expected to remain insignificant.

Infrastructure?

So-called megawatt charging stations are currently being developed and should soon be able to produce 10 times more power than the fastest charging stations currently available.

Economies of scale

When it comes to cost – a crucial factor given the tight margins in the trucking industry – electric cars have the advantage.

Purchase prices benefit from the economies of scale brought by the rapid development of electric car batteries.

Operating costs are also modest, as electric cars require little maintenance and electricity is usually much cheaper than green hydrogen.

However, in some cases hydrogen cars may be a wiser choice.

“For example, if you drive with two drivers in Europe – where the drivers can skip the regulated breaks.

“Or when you’re in very remote areas. Or on islands that don’t have a connection to the grid,” Unterlohner said.

“Or if you’re transporting an 80-ton wind turbine through Germany, where you have to close the roads at night and you have to work all night. Then it might make sense,” he said.

But even Scania, which has delivered four hydrogen trucks to Asko, has decided to focus on electric heavy-duty trucks “because of their cost advantages in overall economics and fuel efficiency.”

“In some geographies and operations … we see that hydrogen-powered vehicles may be a viable technology,” Scania chief executive Peter Forsberg said.

“That’s why we’ve started some activities to learn how a hydrogen ecosystem might work.”