Hydrogen Mercedes trucks to undergo customer trials

Daimler Truck is ready to deploy fuel-cell hydrogen trucks into customer fleets in Germany after a testing phase on tracks and public roads.

In September a prototype Mercedes-Benz GenH2 truck covered 1,047km with one fill of liquid hydrogen, and Daimler Truck is building the vehicle for delivery to Amazon, Air Products, Ineos, Holcim and Wiedmann & Winz in the middle of 2024. The companies will take part in the first customer trials to gain initial experience in decarbonised long-distance transport with fuel-cell trucks before Daimler Truck introduces the series version of the GenH2 in the second half of the decade.

The five semi-trailer tractors will be deployed in long-haul applications on routes in Germany. During these first customer trials the GenH2 Trucks will remain under the supervision and responsibility of Mercedes-Benz Trucks. The vehicles will be refuelled at designated public liquid hydrogen filling stations in Wörth am Rhein and in the Duisburg area.

Daimler Truck and its partner companies aim to demonstrate that decarbonised transport with hydrogen-powered trucks is possible today. For the transformation to succeed, it will be necessary in the coming years to ensure the build-up of an international refuelling infrastructure and a sufficient supply of green liquid hydrogen.

Andreas Gorbach, responsible for truck technology at Daimler Truck, said: “With this first customer fleet, our fuel-cell trucks are being tested in real customer operations. A win-win situation for both sides: our customers get to know fuel-cell technology in daily real-life operation, and our engineering team gets to better understand customer needs and relevant use cases, taking them into account for series development.”

Daimler Truck prefers liquid hydrogen due to its higher energy density, which allows more hydrogen to be carried and transport costs to be significantly reduced. Liquid hydrogen tanks also offer advantages in terms of cost and weight, enabling higher payloads. The trucks are refuelled within 10 to 15 minutes.

The GenH2 truck is similar to the diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz Actros long-haul truck in terms of payload, range and performance. It has a 25-tonne payload and gross combination weight of 40 tonnes.

The fuel-cell system delivers 300kW of power, with the battery providing an additional 400kW temporarily. The battery is recharged with braking energy and excess fuel-cell energy.

The initiative forms part of Daimler Truck’s commitment to the Paris Agreement under which it will offer new vehicles that are carbon-neutral in driving operation in global core markets (Europe, the US and Japan) by 2039.

Daimler Trucks said battery-electric trucks are the ideal choice for distribution haulage and in the case of the eActros 600 for long-distance haulage with regular deployment on plannable routes with suitable distances and charging options. It said fuel-cell trucks could be a better solution for flexible and demanding deployments in heavy-duty transport and long-distance haulage.