The fast acceleration in fuel cell technology in recent years means any development strategy has to be flexible, no-one can be sure exactly where hydrogen is heading. Even the largest truck manufacturers are working in the dark, to a certain extent.
“This is the biggest challenge this industry has ever seen,” said Dr. Andreas Gorbach, Head of Truck Technology and Member of the Board of Management Daimler Truck at the IAA in Hanover in late 2022. “It’s decarbonisation, digitalisation and a supply crisis. From a decarbonisation standpoint, talking about propulsion systems, it’s certainly transforming what we have today, from diesel into zero emission, battery electric and fuel cell.
“We’ve been doing everything with one technology for 120 years, but the diesel ‘one size fits all’ solution won’t take us into the future. So, it’s battery electric and hydrogen based propulsion. Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group jointly established Cellcentric as a joint venture for development, manufacturing, industrialisation and commercialisation of fuel cell systems.
“Three things are important, we need great products, second, we need the infrastructure and third, it needs to have a good total cost of ownership case for our customers. That massively depends on energy cost, electricity versus diesel versus hydrogen. This is why we will also see them develop at different speeds in different regions because energy prices, tolls and other things will differ around the planet significantly. These are the three things we need, great product, infrastructure and the right energy prices.”
Cellcentric has decided that the 150kW stack will be its main building block into the future which will work for most truck applications as well as stationary power, heavy applications, ships and trains. It can be used as a single unit or multiple set of units for any application (a stack of three fuel cells equates to 612hp for the driveline).
The individual units are approximately 230kg, therefore, two units producing the 300kW will weigh in at 460kg. Add to this the battery which fuel cell designs need between the cell itself and the electric motor and then there is the mass of the electric motor which powers the driveline. However, the latest electric drivelines on show at IAA use an e-axle, a drive axle which includes the motor in its assembly, reducing tare.
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