Glasgow, UK: Scottish truck maker HVS has started trials of its hydrogen power tractor at Mira test track. Jawad Khursheed, who started the company, said the truck can refuel in 15-20 minutes and has a range of 600km.
The key issues is availability of green hydrogen currently expensive and far less energy efficient than plugging a battery into a charging point. The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight has calculated that switching all diesel trucks to batteries would need 10.6GW of electricity and a switch to hydrogen would need 35.6GW of electricity.
There is currently no consensus on whether trucks should be powered by batteries or hydrogen. And there are no refuelling stations anywhere on the road network. Continental trends suggest hydrogen as a fuel for heavy trucks and battery power for light and medium weight trucks. And there is government funding for refuelling points, something lacking in the UK. The UK government describes its approach to decarbonisation as “technology neutral”.
