'Far too expensive' | Europe’s second-largest truck maker says hydrogen will not be a major road freight fuel

Hydrogen-fuelled trucks will only play a small role in Europe’s zero-emissions transport future, with the vast majority of logistics vehicles set to be battery electric, according to Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of Europe's second-largest truck maker, MAN.

However, Vlaskamp does not rule out hydrogen totally, arguing that hydrogen or biofuels might be suitable for vehicles carrying extremely heavy loads, such as 150-250 tonne wind turbines.

“We see today that [green] hydrogen is far too expensive,” he said, adding that it is about four to five times as costly as what customers are willing to pay.

“Therefore, hydrogen will only be used in a small segment in Europe, such as for special transport,” Vlaskamp explained.

Munich-based MAN, which holds the second-largest share of the European heavy-duty market at 16%, last year indicated that while it would keep an eye on hydrogen as a zero-emissions transport option, it would mainly focus on battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

While the zero-emissions passenger car market has been cornered by BEVs, many companies have argued that hydrogen makes more sense for long-distance, heavy-duty trucks, due to the time it would take to charge large truck batteries and the difficulties in getting large amounts of clean electricity to truck stops able to simultaneously charge multiple vehicles.

MAN noted that this is an advantage for fuel-cell vehicles, which only need a few minutes to fill tanks with ranges of up to 1,000km, and that “only around half that distance is realistic for an electric truck”.

But it also expects further development in battery technology that will increase the range of heavy-duty EVs.

The firm has this week received a combined €25m ($27.1m) in subsidies from the Bavarian state government towards a battery manufacturing facility that will start large-scale production in 2025.

The truckmaker is due to roll out its first eTruck in 2024 and 450 of its eBuses are already in operation in European cities.

Its parent company, Traton, is also part of a joint venture with peers Daimler and Volvo that will invest €500m into building 1,700 high-performance charging points on or close to motorways and logistics hubs throughout Europe.

“In Europe we see that we will need over 20,000 stations along trunk roads and motorways by 2030 in order to carry out around 30% of logistics transport electrically,” Vlaskamp said in the interview.

“That will cost several billion euros. The good thing about these investments is that they are worthwhile and effective in the long term. The diesel engine is being pushed further and further back, the electric drive will remain the primary solution.”