Swedish truck manufacturer Scania is backing battery power over hydrogen fuel cells, arguing the former makes better economic sense for long-haul trucking.
The trucking sector is starting to attract greater consideration in the energy transition as it accounts for 23pc of automotive carbon emissions in both Europe and the US.
"The main driver [to electrify] ... is the power density and the energy density in the batteries, using less and less ... expensive materials like cobalt and other pricey points in the battery," Scania's powertrain research, technology and concept development director Mats Reimark told Argus. This fall in cost and improved economics is a key reason for the firm's decision to increase electrification and do it through batteries, Reimark said. Scania aims for 10pc of its truck sales to be electric by 2025, and 50pc by 2030.
Batteries over hydrogen
Much of the industry is looking toward hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul trucking from around 2030, arguing that it has better energy performance. But for Scania, batteries are preferable because with hydrogen technology the cost of energy lost between generation, storage and fuelling is too high, Reimark said. He conceded that hydrogen solutions can be very effective, but said they do not necessarily belong on the back of a truck.
"Hydrogen is actually a very efficient way to store energy. But when you feed it into this storage, you're going to lose 60pc or 50pc of the energy. When you need to take it out ... for the fuel cell, you're going to lose another 50pc and you're down to 25pc of what you had originally," he said. For Scania, this loss in power equates to three times the amount of renewable power required to power a hydrogen truck, compared with an electric truck. "It means that you have to have three times as many solar panels, you need to have three times as many windmills and you need to have three times as much hydropower. And to us it doesn't make sense."
He also noted that trucks are required to be used more regularly and at higher capacity than cars, giving them different energy requirements. "The difference between a passenger car and a truck is that the truck is running its full potential for hours and hours each day… you're running full bore. The passenger car probably does full potential for two hours in its lifetime. Sometimes not even that," Reimark said. This means the fuel cell has to be able to manage this high capacity, which in Scania's view the hydrogen fuel cell is not adapted to, with its "best efficiency a little bit above idle ... you're going to be safe at 50pc".
Hub-to-hub fuelling
For Scania, part of the long-term thinking also comes from customer behaviour, where most refuel at hubs at the start and end of a journey, bypassing refuelling stations on the road. This is also being incorporated into the thinking when it comes to batteries.
"By 2035-40, you're going to have so much energy on board, you don't care about charging along the road. Most trucks today, they fill up their diesel tanks at home, and they have a better diesel price point than they would if they go to filling stations. That's the business they're going to go back to — that's where we going [with battery charging]," Reimark said. "In the middle point, there's going to be a business for along-the-road charging, but to make good business you're going to avoid it at any cost."
