Planned to allow for the testing of trucks and refuelling equipment under real-word conditions, it is hoped the two projects will comes as a key step towards the mass commercialisation of the hydrogen mobility technology.
Falling under the H2Accelerate TRUCKS project, between Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Iveco Group, VVT, International Road Union (IRU), Romanian National Union of Road Transporters (UNTRR), Federazione Italiana Autotasportatori Professionali (FIAP), WKÖ, and Element Energy France, the deployment of the 150 vehicles will be coordinated by SINTEF, supported by Shell, TotalEnergies, and Everfuel.
It plans to see 150 fuel cell trucks on European roads by the mid-to-late 2020s, allowing for the development of technology towards series manufacturing for the three OEMs in the second half of the decade.
H2 View understands the trucks are expected to be either 4×2 or 6×2 with up to 44 tonnes of capacity and ranges of at least 600km.
The €30m funding granted by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership will see the trucks deployed to “trusted customers” of the OEMs and tested in real-world conditions over several years to demonstrate and assess their technical and economic performance, with results from the project planned to be used to set the scene for large-scale fuel cell truck deployment in the coming years.
“We are delighted to provide funding support to the H2Accelerate TRUCKS project, a flagship project which will pave the way for the commercialisation of Europe’s hydrogen trucking system,” said Bart Biebuyck, Executive Director of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. “Through both projects, we can witness first-hand how different funding programmes can work together to accelerate the realisation of a hydrogen trucking ecosystem in Europe.”
Giandomenico Fioretti, Head of Alternative Propulsion Business Development at IVECO Truck Business Unit, added, “We are proud of the work we will undertake with our partners in the ground-breaking H2Accelerate TRUCKS project, and with the support of Clean Hydrogen Partnership funding, to provide a tangible contribution in paving the way for the technical and commercial viability of long-haul hydrogen trucking.”
Set to both support and benefit from the truck deployments is the H2Accelerate Inaugural Station Deployment (ISD) project, which is hoped to support the deployment of eight hydrogen refuelling stations in France and the Netherlands.
The collaboration has each station will have a capacity of over one tonne per day, utilising the N+1 redundancy in station design – seeing key pieces of equipment duplicated in station design to minimise downtime in the event of component failure.
The stations are planned to be installed along key TEN-T transport corridors, allowing for easy access for truck end users driving on major European highways.
The ISD comes as just the first in a series of planned hydrogen refuelling station deployments as part of the H2Accelerate collaboration. Infrastructure members also intend to build further stations along strategic corridors between Scandinavia and Italy in the future.
Approval of the projects is hopes to allow for both the end-use and supply challenges, removing the barrier for first mover action.