Ikea introduces first hydrogen trucks because 'battery vehicles do not have the range to deliver to remote areas'

The Austrian arm of Swedish furniture giant Ikea has introduced five new hydrogen-powered trucks — adding to its existing fleet of 56 battery-electric models — as part of a plan to make all its deliveries emission-free by 2025.

“Our EV [electric vehicle] trucks are perfect for carrying out multi-stop routes in urban areas,” said Melanie Eltzner, customer fulfilment manager at Ikea Austria. “Since we also want to supply customers in more remote areas of Austria with zero emissions, we had to find a solution with vehicle that provide a longer range.

“This is exactly what hydrogen fuel-cell technology offers — and without having to compromise on the payload weight.”

Quantron’s QLI FCEV [fuel-cell electric vehicle] is the first commercially available hydrogen-powered “compact” truck model (weighing under 7.5 tonnes) in Europe — and can travel up to 400km on one tank of hydrogen fuel.

This compares to a range of “at least 170km” for the 56 QLI BEV (battery-electric vehicle) models used by Ikea, which were also supplied by the German vehicle manufacturer.

It is the first time Ikea has employed hydrogen-powered trucks anywhere in the world.

Judging by comments from the Austrian government, Ikea is set to order more FCEVs in the country, with the Climate Protection Ministry saying it will provide the company with almost €4.8m for 40 hydrogen vehicles, as part of its Emission-free Commercial Vehicles and Infrastructure funding programme.

The hydrogen for the new vehicles will be green, and supplied by local utility Wien Energie.

“An important lever for climate protection lies in the energy transition in transport: with the introduction of emission-free vehicles, IKEA Austria is making an important contribution to the mobility transition in the logistics sector and to climate protection,” said climate protection minister Leonore Gewessler.