Electric mobility: the current status with heavy-duty commercial vehicles.

The EU Commission’s plans and regulations to reduce carbon emissions are forcing HGV manufacturers to step up development of new drive types. Two camps have formed over this issue in Germany. While South Korean hydrogen-powered trucks operating in Switzerland have already successfully clocked 1.5 million kilometres, in Germany, manufacturers such as MAN are initially opting for battery power, even for heavy-duty vehicles. Delivery vehicles and smaller trucks have successfully run on batteries for many years, particularly if the journeys covered are not too long – when vehicles are used in urban areas, for example.

However, freight forwarders view the limited range of even the largest batteries for powering semi-trailers or large trucks with scepticism. Test drives have shown that routes of 500 kilometres and more are perfectly feasible. Nonetheless, intermediate charging involves hours of waiting, making operation financially unattractive. Fuel cell technology offers a more favourable solution in this case. A full tank can cover a range of 600 kilometres, for example. Refilling the tank takes a matter of minutes. But what about the infrastructure? Hydrogen filling stations continue to be a rarity.

The first large plants to generate green hydrogen may have already been built or are in the pipeline, but it might take decades to build a nationwide network. A group of manufacturers and energy suppliers led by Daimler Truck is going all-out on this approach. Daimler is pushing ahead with the production of heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell HGVs while still continuing work on battery-powered trucks. The group led by MAN, on the other hand, is taking the opposite route. MAN is going all-out on battery-power trucks and delaying its full commitment to hydrogen fuel cell development until after 2030.