Even heavy trucks will soon be powered by electricity
Electric instead of fuel cell
Traton electric
© press-inform – the press office
When it comes to passenger cars, the decision seems to have been made a long time ago: the automotive future is electric. Now it looks like the die has been cast for trucks too. Leading European manufacturers are assuming that trucks will also switch to electric storage in the medium term.
Once again, cars are setting the pace in terms of technology and commercial vehicles are lagging behind at a slight distance. After combustion engines gradually phase out in most markets over the next 15 years and are replaced by electric drives, this trend could also continue in heavy goods traffic, at least in Europe. With its various brands, Traton, the heavy-duty division of the Volkswagen Group, is slowly adjusting to the fact that the heavy-duty pack donkeys will increasingly be powered electrically in the coming decade. That would mean an end to the diesel monoculture. Trucks are more about maintenance costs than private car customers, because these account for a significantly larger share over the lifetime than the pure purchase, which is often between 80,000 and 150,000 euros per tractor unit.
The better the vehicles are utilized, the more intensively and regularly they are used, the greater the energy cost advantage of electric trucks. According to Traton analyses, a heavy electric truck in Europe should already be ahead of a conventional diesel truck in terms of total costs by 2025. A prerequisite for this is a nationwide fast-charging infrastructure; in Europe designed for a driver’s 45-minute break after four and a half hours’ driving time. “Electric trucks lose a maximum of 25 percent of their energy to the wheel,” explains Andreas Kammel, who is responsible for the strategy for alternative drives at Traton, “with hydrogen, on the other hand, only 25 percent reaches the wheel and these conversion losses hurt. Even if the Factor three should be reduced in the future, this cannot be compensated for.” According to the current status, the batteries themselves do not cause the Traton inventors any stomach ache. Slightly falling costs and a service life, which should develop parallel to the service life of the vehicle, are expected here, similar to that of a car.
The strategy of the Tration Group to rely on battery-electric drives for the drive of the future is underpinned by a current Fraunhofer analysis. The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research comes to the conclusion that the battery-electric drive is superior to the fuel cell in most regions and applications of commercial vehicles, explicitly including heavy-duty long-distance transport. “We are pleased with the clarity of the analysis results, even if we are not surprised. It once again confirms the strategy of the Traton Group to rely on battery-electric drives for our commercial vehicles,” says Traton CTO Catharina Modahl-Nilsson, “in the truck In most cases, pure electric trucks will be the cheaper and more environmentally friendly solution, especially on long-haul routes.”
Unlike some of its competitors, Daimler Trucks is currently operating on two tracks and relies equally on electric and fuel cell drives, which are intended to replace diesel engines in the medium term. Together with Volvo Trucks, those responsible at Daimler founded the fuel cell joint venture Cellcentric. The company, which was founded a year ago, wants to become one of the leading manufacturers of fuel cell systems. To this end, the company plans to set up one of the largest series production facilities for fuel cell systems in Europe from 2025. But even the Volkswagen brands are not completely ruling out the fuel cell. The start-up Cryomotive, the commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN, as well as the commercial vehicle converter Clean Logistics, test expert IABG and the Technical University of Munich are currently jointly developing a cryogas hydrogen tank with a refueling system for trucks. The goal is a range of 1,000 kilometers per tank filling and a refueling in a brisk ten minutes. The three-and-a-half year Cryotruck project with a total budget of around 25 million euros will focus on the development of a storage and refueling system for cryogenic compressed hydrogen gas in heavy fuel cell trucks.
Competitor Hyundai also relies on the fuel cell. A test fleet of fuel cell trucks has been on the road to Switzerland for more than a year. “The Swiss transport and logistics companies are doing pioneering work with this project. With more than a million kilometers in less than a year, they are underlining the importance they see in hydrogen electric mobility,” explains Jörg Ackermann, President of the H2 Mobility Association in the Switzerland, “The storage capacity of hydrogen alone provides a strong argument. With the Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell, the members of the H2 Mobility Switzerland Association are opting for the most effective way to decarbonize heavy traffic.” The hydrogen model consumes around eight kilograms per 100 kilometers at a price of 12 francs per kilogram. For comparison: normal trucks consume around 30 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers at a price of 1.60 francs per liter.
Even if Daimler relies on the long-running hydrogen, the Swabians currently seem to be pointing towards electric drives, because Daimler Trucks recently signed an agreement to found a joint venture, according to which they want to set up a public high-performance charging network together with Traton and Volvo, which in particular Long-distance trucks and coaches can gain strength on the Autobahn. After official approval has been granted, the three parties involved want to invest 500 million euros together in a first step to ensure a charging infrastructure consisting of at least 1,700 charging points on the main connecting axes, motorways and near the logistics parks. “If other partners are added, more than the 1,700 charging points are conceivable,” adds Andreas Kammel, “we expect that in 2030 50 percent of our new sales in long-distance transport will be battery-electric, provided the charging infrastructure is in place. In terms of resilience power grids shouldn’t fail – our trucks mainly charge at midday and at night when demand and prices are particularly low.”
A test charging park is currently being set up at the Daimler Trucks production site in Wörth. Here, truck customers can experience charging stations and concepts from various manufacturers in real operation and work out a suitable charging solution together with the experts on site. The demonstration charging park will initially be equipped with five charging stations. In addition, the installation of a photovoltaic system on the roof of the charging park, including stationary storage, is planned in order to additionally support the power supply of the charging stations. It seems as if more and more of the captains of the country road will soon be sitting in an electric driver’s cab. Only the problem with the parking spaces remains, because the current truck parking spaces on the main traffic routes are already bursting at the seams – day after night and night after day.