As part of its mission to decarbonise transportation, Volvo Trucks has now offered conventional trucks and battery-electric trucks that use renewable fuel cells such as biogas and hydrogen.
The use of biogas and hydrogen fuel cells in this electric truck, also known as FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle), is the third option in Volvo’s zero CO2 emission truck product portfolio.
President of Volvo Trucks, Roger Alm revealed that the development of this technology has been carried out for several years. He admitted that he was very enthusiastic that the truck with its first fuel cell had succeeded on the test track.
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“The combination of battery electric and fuel cell electricity will allow our customers to completely eliminate CO2 emissions from their trucks, regardless of the transportation task,” he said, citing the official Volvo Trucks website on Tuesday (21/6/2022).
Volvo’s electric trucks with renewable fuel cells will have an operational range comparable to many diesel trucks of up to 1000 km and a refueling time of less than 15 minutes. The total weight can be around 65 tonnes or even higher, and both fuel cells have the capacity to generate 300 kW of onboard electricity.
Customer trials will begin in a few years from now and commercialization is planned for the end of the decade.
“Hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric trucks would be well suited for long-haul and heavy-duty tasks that require energy. They could also be an option in countries where battery charging possibilities are limited,” said Roger Alm.
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The fuel cells will be supplied by Cellcentric, a joint venture between the Volvo Group and Daimler Truck AG. Cellcentric will build one of Europe’s largest serial production facilities for fuel cells, specifically developed for heavy vehicles.
Roger Alm hopes that the supply of fuel cells such as green hydrogen can increase significantly over the next few years, as many industries will rely on them to reduce CO2.
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“Fuel cell trucks will then become an important complement to longer and heavier transportation in a few years from now,” concludes Roger Alm.
