Volvo’s Fuel Cell Truck Alliance With Daimler Is A Return To The Hydrogen Bandwagon

Volvo and Daimler have recently announced plans to combine their efforts to commercialize hydrogen fuel cell trucks, a big move by two of the world’s biggest commercial vehicle makers with considerable engineering expertise that followed somewhat different paths.

Daimler has pursued hydrogen for two decades, though mainly through its passenger vehicles. But with the hydrogen paradigm shifting, Daimler plans to drop its efforts in passenger fuel cell vehicles and concentrate efforts on fuel cell trucks in joint venture with Volvo. Volvo has focused more on battery power to electrify trucks lately, but also has long experience with hydrogen. I have recently spent over seven months in Gothenburg, Sweden, where I had an opportunity to interact with technical staff at Volvo. Based on that experience, there’s good reason for optimism about its new project.

Last year Volvo started the testing of its LIGHTS battery-electric truck project in California, but that’s purely a North American venture separate from efforts in Sweden. Back in its home market, Volvo operates a number of battery-electric buses to get firsthand experience with electric heavy-duty transportation, which will come in handy as hydrogen plays a bigger role in Europe. Already in that market, rival truck manufacturer Scania, owned by Volkswagen, has developed a fuel cell garbage truck with funding help from the EU’s Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, and has recently delivered a fuel cell truck in Norway for a grocery chain operations.

In my interactions with Volvo, I encouraged them to jump on the wagon to develop fuel cell trucks because of fuel cell systems are lighter and refuel quicker than batteries among many other benefits. We also extensively discussed the hydrogen infrastructure needs and all the challenges involved. By the time discussions with Volvo’s technical staff grew more detailed, it seems the preparations for the joint venture with Daimler were well underway.

While the project with Daimler is something of a shift for Volvo, it’s by no means late to the current hydrogen wave. Certainly, fuel cell truck announcements are flying around, but the technology for the best commercial solution isn’t quite there yet. No company has it solved 100%, because this is not easy. Truckmakers can learn from the experience of hydrogen passenger cars, but that’s a whole different ball game with its own set of challenges that could be discussed separately. Volvo is not new to the fuel cell world, something that remained veiled even during the spotlight of its project with Daimler.

That brings us to another “up and coming” player in the fuel cell world, Power Cell. Power Cell is a fuel cell stack and system manufacturer, also based in Gothenburg. Initially, Volvo began its fuel cell research in 1993 into auxiliary power units, or APUs. This is similar to what Delphi Automotive developed through the first decade of the 2000s, with its solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) unit. A truck APU is designed to generate electricity for the driver’s needs while parked: air conditioning, TV, refrigerator, lights, etc. Traditionally drivers had to run the whole engine or a small auxiliary diesel generator for power, but both degrade efficiency and produce harmful emissions like particulates or NOx. The Delphi SOFC APU would convert diesel fuel to electricity directly at lower temperatures than combustion, and that wouldn’t trigger NOx formation. Volvo and Power Cell developed an APU with internal fuel reforming and proton exchange membrane fuel cell. But both solutions didn’t take off for either Volvo or Delphi.

Ultimately, Volvo’s fuel cell technical staff separated from the parent company to form Power Cell in 2008 and prevailed. Last year, the company was viewed by Nikola as one of the potential suppliers for its fuel cell trucks. Instead, Power Cell selected Bosch as its partner and will supply fuel cells to the automotive market via that collaboration. Bosch, of course, is very keen to be a global supplier of transportation solutions with fuel cells. Similarly, other big players are interested in the market. A good example is Cummins’ recent acquisition of Hydrogenics, putting both fuel cell and electrolyzer expertise at the truck engine company’s disposal. Power Cell’s separation from Volvo was not without wrinkles since its alliance with Bosch means it may not be directly available to work with Volvo. Things like that happen in life.

Another interesting fact for Gothenburg is that it has a hydrogen station that’s currently in a limbo. It was built by Woikoski, a Finnish industrial gas company, but it wasn’t a successful experience: too few fuel cell vehicles were deployed in the area to cover the cost of operating the stations. As a result, it hasn’t been fueling vehicles for more than a year. The station was placed on the market, but hasn’t yet attracted a new owner.

Nevertheless, Gothenburg has all the elements to become a thriving fuel cell hub: Volvo trucks, Power Cell and perhaps the station to re-open.