Hydrogen Vehicle Systems: Fuel Cell Truck from the UK

Work is also being done on hydrogen trucks in Glasgow: The start-up HVS, founded in 2017, plans to bring two fuel cell trucks into series production: the HVS Beta for distribution traffic with a total weight of 4.25 to 7.5 tons and the 19-tonne tractor unit HVS Alpha X. The latter is expected to achieve a range of 505 to 830 kilometers with a 200 kW fuel cell, while the former will manage 350 to 415 kilometers with a 50 kW cell.

A drivable prototype of the tractor unit is now also available. The Hub2Hub consortium plans to begin test drives in partnership with the British supermarket chain ASDA starting in 2024. It was chosen by the Center for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) as a recipient for the project, jointly funded by industry and government. The project is set to begin with two prototypes. The Hub2Hub project is managed by HVS along with Fusion Processing and the aforementioned supermarket chain ASDA, requiring total investments of 12 million pounds. The public grant will thus cover just over half of the project costs.

The two planned prototypes are also expected to achieve Level 4 autonomous driving. A prototype with a cabin will be followed by one without a driver’s cab. Among other things, the autonomous operation will be tested with the "CAVStar" driving system from Fusion Processing. In this process, the truck can also be remotely controlled by a driver who steers the truck virtually from a control center.

The partners do not provide more specific information about the fuel cell drive system. The Hub2Hub project focuses on hub-to-hub transport between logistics centers, which should also be well-suited for autonomous driving modes. For long-distance transport, the range would not be sufficient.

What does that mean?

It will be interesting to see how far the project comes, as both the technology and the vehicle are being completely newly developed here. And for the mentioned hub-to-hub transport, many truck manufacturers already have near-series or even production-ready electric trucks in (pre-)series production.