Volvo now testing hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks

Volvo Trucks announced it has begun testing the first trucks fitted with fuel cells powered by hydrogen. The company claims the trucks have a 1,000km range on a single charge or just over 620 miles and it takes less than 15 minutes to have them refueled.

Volvo and Daimler Truck established a joint-venture in 2021 that is supplying the fuel cells for the trucks. Volvo believes the hydrogen powered fuel cells are very well suited for long distance and heavy duty haulage and transport industry. The company is not shifting away from battery-powered trucks, it is simply exploring all possible solutions.

Electrifying long haul transport comes with a set of challenges. Batteries are the main stumbling block, for the heavy duty trucks they need to be gigantic with some batteries weighing in excess of 4 metric tons. Then there is public recharging infrastructure which currently is nearly non-existent. The technology is already here with the MCS Megawatt charging introduced recently, but the infrastructure for commercial vehicles is hugely underdeveloped.

Battery-powered trucks are more suitable for short distance driving and city driving since they can be recharged overnight at the depot. Long distance driving requires more energy available for a much longer duration and Volvo believes hydrogen fuel cells might be the answer here.

Storage and transport of hydrogen are not the main - the problem is large-scale supply of green hydrogen. Another issue is the refueling infrastructure which at the moment doesn’t exist but it should be deployed fairly quickly if the key problem is solved. The majority of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels which is unacceptable and once the technology moves at scale to renewable energy hydrogen can become a real alternative for the transport industry.

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