Future of Daimler Trucks - Hydrogen and Electric Battery Powered Trucks

Daimler Truck AG is betting on both electric battery and hydrogen technologies to power its future trucks. While the company has already launched an electric truck, the hydrogen powered trucks are still in the process of implementation.

Daimler Truck AG, one of the largest truck manufacturers worldwide and the parent company of BharatBenz commercial vehicles, is betting on both electric and hydrogen technologies for their upcoming trucks.

On October 10, Daimler Truck AG launched an electric long-haul truck - eActros 600, with a driving range of 500 km. The 44-tonne eActros is powered by a 600 kWh battery that can be charged from 20% to 80% in just 30 minutes using a megawatt charging system.

Raghavendra Vaidya, CEO and Managing Director (MD) of Daimler Truck Innovation Centre India (DTICI), said, “Historically, hydrogen was an alternate source of energy. But then as the battery technology matured and got to a point where you can pack enough batteries in a car which will give an acceptable range, then the passenger vehicle industry moved away from hydrogen.”

DTICI is a captive unit that supports research, product development and IT activities of Daimler Trucks. The unit is working on integrating heavy duty trucks powered with hydrogen. In late September, a prototype of the GenH2 truck took a driving test and covered a 1,047 km distance with a single fill of hydrogen.

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In regards to HD trucks powered by hydrogen, Vaidya said, “Heavy duty trucks carry 40 tonnes but they still need a 1,000 km range, at least. And that cannot be achieved by battery electric only. That's why we have a dual strategy of using battery electric and hydrogen as well. We firmly believe that both these technologies have their place in decarbonising and reducing tail-pipe emissions.”

The company is planning on using both battery electric and hydrogen technologies to power their trucks in future. “The interplay of hydrogen and battery commercial vehicles is what we are trying to figure out. Where we use one and where we use the other to give the maximum range and torque,” he added.

The company gets fuel cell packs from cellcentric which is the joint venture of Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group.

About the future of hydrogen powered trucks in India, he said, “There is a regulation on active brake assist that is coming where the truck has to brake itself. These are not regulations yet but very soon they will be. This is where we will have a headstart over our competitors. We introduced these features in other parts of the world 15 years back. If this becomes a regulation we can bring it to the market very fast. And that is where we will work with Bharat Benz.”

The Bengaluru based R&D centre is also collaborating with Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) to implement some of the features of hydrogen powered trucks.