Europe’s second-largest industrial truck maker goes to build 200 hydrogen-powered semi trucks, but stays skeptical concerning the viability of hydrogen as a transport fuel.
It’s a wierd announcement, so far as these items go. MAN even went thus far as to reiterate its commitment to battery-electric vehicles for “most” applications, strange for an announcement a few hydrogen-fueled product that the corporate plans to try and truly sell to a select number of shoppers who carry extra-heavy loads like timber or parts for offshore wind turbines. Other hydrogen strangeness includes claims that “it will still be a few years before the technology is truly market-ready and competitive.”
Those claims don’t come from MAN Truck’s notoriously hydrogen-skeptical CEO, Alexander Vlaskamp, who told reporters that it was, “impossible for hydrogen to effectively compete with battery electric trucks,” back in January. “Today you cannot buy hydrogen for less than 13 or 14 euros … and it is not green. And when we have green hydrogen it will be needed for the heavy industry of steel, cement, or plastic.”
So — if all that’s true, why is MAN continuing to spend money on hydrogen-powered vehicle programs?
“Only to test our hypothesis,” said Vlaskamp (emphasis mine). “We may use hydrogen for transportation in 2035, but only if there is enough green hydrogen at the right price and the necessary infrastructure is in place.”
MAN CEO expresses doubts about H
And, as noted above, Vlaskamp isn’t alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the corporate is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a press release quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before one other board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
As far because the hydrogen trucks themselves go, the H2 combustion engine appears to have taken center stage in MAN’s hydrogen product road map, with the corporate’s previously stated plans to put its FCEV semi into limited production in 2025 seemingly pushed back to make way for this run.
Dubbed the MAN gTGX, the trucks are fitted with a 56 kg tank that it says may be stuffed with hydrogen compressed at 700 bar in quarter-hour. And, with tailpipe emissions coming in at lower than 1kg of CO2 per km, the truck might be categorized as a “zero-emissions vehicle” under the EU’s road transport regulations.
MAN says its H2 combustion engine will deliver a large 1800+ lb-ft. of torque (2500 Nm), enough to haul more 220,000 lbs. (100 tonnes) of payload.
Electrek’s Take
This whole thing is strange, right? Imagine RAM trucks announcing a brand new diesel pickup and including quotes from several executives concerning the technology being a step or two behind the electrical trucks from Ford and Tesla. It can be bizarre.
That said, the message here seems to be that, if Europe wants to keep spending money on hydrogen trucks, MAN might be comfortable to take it. That’s what I’m getting, anyway — what about you guys? Scroll on down to the comments and tell us.
Credit : electrek.co
