Commercial vehicles: Farewell to the combustion engine
Major manufacturers show their plans to make the industry more climate-friendly in the future. Electricity and hydrogen are at the centre of the innovation efforts. A switch that is not only driven by the desire for climate-friendly solutions in the transport sector, but also by the future driving bans in Europe.
Previously focused exclusively on the powerful and reliable internal combustion engine, the commercial vehicle sector is now also looking for solutions to emit as little CO2 as possible on the roads. While electromobility seems to be spreading with increasing acceptance in the car industry, it is still unclear for trucks which alternative drive types the industry should rely on. At last week's annual IAA transport show in Hanover, more than 1400 international manufacturers have now presented new models - and with them their vision for a more sustainable future for the sector.
With e-mobility at the forefront, battery engines are in the spotlight at the show, along with hydrogen cell and fuel cell engines. Purely electric trucks could become the standard as early as 2035. By then, more than 50% of newly registered trucks in the European, US and Chinese sales markets should be powered by a battery. According to a study by the consulting firm McKinsey, this figure could rise to around 80% by 2040.
Not everyone in the industry is pursuing the same strategy, however. Some focus on a single type of drive and invest in batteries or hydrogen, for example, while others want to continue pursuing both options. Iveco and its partner Nikola belong to the latter and are presenting the new Nikola Tre model in Hanover in two versions, one battery-electric and one fuel cell-electric. In this way they want to stand out from the many manufacturers who - according to Nikola boss Michael Lohscheller - "still have a lot to do with the technology of the last decade".
Others, however, want to explore other possibilities in depth. Despite the uncertainty surrounding fuel cell drives - especially with regard to their questionable ability to keep up with battery drives - BOSCH will focus on hydrogen. Indeed, together with the US diesel engine manufacturer Cummin, they will work on converting diesel engines to hydrogen without using fuel cells.
Volkswagen and MAN, on the other hand, with the new ID.Buzz Cargo and MAN-eTruck, continue to rely on the electric motor as the main key to zero-emission traffic and freight transport. After all, for the two big corporations the world of hydrogen currently still holds too many risks. Mainly because of the lack of resources needed for the production processes. "Green hydrogen is in short supply," explains MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp. He says the company believes that a large number of fuel cell trucks cannot be expected until the early or mid-2030s. "For this reason, we are now concentrating on battery-electric trucks for the time being," Vlaskamp continues.
In any case, it is important that the commercial vehicle industry looks to the future and continues to invest in climate-friendly mobility. Just like cars, trucks and buses, for example, will have to reckon with the coming ban on new purchases of combustion engines. But solutions will have to be found even before then if the major cities in Europe want to be supplied - because many cities will ban diesel vehicles in the environmental zones in just a few years. In Paris, all diesel vehicles will be banned as early as 2024, and cities in the Netherlands will also introduce zero-emission zones from 2025.
For commercial vehicles, phasing out fossil fuels will ultimately be a greater challenge than for passenger cars, but here too there is no other choice. A challenge that will not only be fought out between electric and hydrogen, but also over time.