The prospect that hydrogen gasoline cells will play a major position in highway transportation dims with each advance in battery tech and charging tech that’s introduced. The most recent blow for hydrogen followers got here from Europe’s second-largest truck maker, MAN. In an interview with Austrian newspaper Der Normal (through Hydrogen Perception), MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp predicted that hydrogen-fueled vans will play solely a small position in Europe’s zero-emission transport future.

“E-mobility is coming now,” Vlaskamp informed Der Normal. “The know-how is mature and best. In our estimation, 80% and even 90% of logistics vans shall be electrically pushed. We see at the moment that inexperienced hydrogen is much too costly.”

Vlaskamp estimates that inexperienced hydrogen (which is produced by electrolysis, not like gray hydrogen, which is produced from fossil fuels) at present prices between 4 and 5 occasions what prospects are prepared to pay. “Due to this fact, hydrogen will solely be utilized in a small section in Europe, corresponding to for particular transport,” Vlaskamp defined, including that hydrogen or biofuels may be appropriate for automobiles carrying extraordinarily heavy masses, corresponding to large wind generators.

Munich-based MAN accounts for about 16% of the European heavy-duty automobile market. It has bought not less than 450 electrical buses to numerous European cities, and plans to roll out its first electrical truck in 2024.

MAN just lately acquired a subsidy package deal value round €25 million from the Bavarian state authorities to construct a battery manufacturing facility that’s scheduled to start manufacturing in 2025.

The corporate beforehand introduced that it could develop a gasoline cell truck for use in a pilot with 5 prospects by subsequent yr. It’s unclear whether or not this undertaking will proceed.

MAN’s father or mother firm Traton (itself a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group), is a part of a three way partnership with Daimler and Volvo that plans to speculate €500 million to construct 1,700 public EV charging factors close to motorways and logistics hubs all through Europe.

“In Europe we see that we’ll want over 20,000 stations alongside trunk roads and motorways by 2030 to be able to perform round 30% of logistics transport electrically,” Vlaskamp stated. “That may price a number of billion euros. The advantage of these investments is that they’re worthwhile and efficient in the long run. The diesel engine is being pushed additional and additional again, and the electrical drive will stay the first answer.”

In associated information, a serious Australian mining agency introduced that it’ll substitute its diesel heavy-duty vans with EVs, noting that hydrogen’s decrease effectivity and better price dominated it out as a viable choice.

Anna Wiley, a VP at mining large BHP, introduced an in depth rationalization of the relative effectivity of diesel, hydrogen and battery-electric vans (through The Pushed). On a fuel-to-wheel foundation, each diesel and hydrogen vans are about 30% environment friendly, whereas for BEVs, the determine is 80% (calculating the relative effectivity on a wells-to-wheels foundation would seemingly give BEVs a fair larger benefit, says The Pushed).

Maybe MAN’s Vlaskamp and BHP’s Wiley might give some physics classes to politicians in Australia, Germany, the UK and the US, who stay eager to divert taxpayer cash to help for hydrogen.

Supply: Hydrogen Perception