DAF homes in on hydrogen amidst EV expansion hurdles

By Categories: NewsPublished On: Monday 20 January 2025

DAF Trucks’ Phil Moon

DAF Trucks sees hydrogen as a promising niche fuel for trucks in a post-diesel age, and its parent company Paccar is working on fuel cell and combustion tech­nologies on both sides of the Atlantic.

The main advantage over battery-electrics is that longer ranges can be achieved without compromising payload by fitting large, heavy, batteries.

Phil Moon, DAF’s UK mar­keting manager, told Transport Operator that Paccar was devel­oping a fuel-cell version of the Kenworth T680 in North Ameri­ca with a 1000 km range, while in Europe work continued on a DAF hydrogen-powered combus­tion-engined truck with an 800 km range.

There were, however, hurdles in the way.

“It’s technically much more difficult than producing a bat­tery-electric vehicle: it will only be affordable in markets where diesel has become impractical.

“Hydrogen internal combus­tion is not considered zero-emis­sions in the UK – at least not yet. However, the hydrogen internal combustion truck may get to market before the fuel cell one does.”

Chemistry was also against the fuel cell. Using grid electricity to charge a battery truck yielded an efficiency of almost 70 per cent, while using grid electricity to create hydrogen by electroly­sis, then transporting the hydro­gen to the point of use, filling the vehicle’s tank and using a fuel cell to convert it back into elec­tricity was less than 30 per cent efficient.

More truck recharging facilities are required to incentivise EV uptake

Meanwhile Louis Jones, DAF’s UK EV and connected services director, expressed concern that the government was doing little to encourage demand for bat­tery-electric trucks beyond the current ZEHID demonstration projects.

“For instance, it’s difficult to get new battery-electric vehicles accepted for the government’s plug-in truck grant scheme.”

More truck-accessible public chargers were needed, and en­ergy prices on them had to be competitive. Booking systems to reserve charges needed to be cross-compatible, and charging companies needed to be able to get faster National Grid connec­tions for sites.

Future changes to legislation might indirectly increase de­mand for electric trucks. These could include above-inflation fuel duty increases on diesel, a growing number of zero-emis­sions zones in urban areas, and preferential road pricing for BEVs.

Phil Moon added that cur­rent electric truck users were choosing them for non-commer­cial reasons, and the ultimate objective was for price com­patibility between electric and diesel trucks. The variability of comparative energy pricing be­tween electricity and diesel was a constraint on this, but, he said, when all operational costs were taken into consideration, “we could see price compatibility on certain vehicle types in eight years’ time.”

He warned that government deadlines for ending the sale of heavy-duty diesel trucks of 2035 and 2040 did not look particularly achievable in the current environment.

“Our biggest short-term con­cern is to get the volumes of battery-electric trucks up. Sales volume is needed in each prod­uct development cycle. Without government intervention we will struggle to meet the 2035 and 2040 deadlines.

“Fuel duty is a chain that the government can pull,” he sug­gested.