Truck manufacturer Volvo Trucks is bringing hydrogen trucks to market this decade.

“We’ve been developing this technology for a few years now, and it’s great to see the first trucks running successfully on the test track. The combination of battery power and fuel cell power allows our customers to completely eliminate CO2 emissions from their trucks, regardless of transport tasks, ”says Volvo Trucks CEO Roger Alm.

The local emissions of a fuel cell electric truck are just water vapor. Hydrogen fuel cells provide it with electricity and have a range of a thousand kilometers at best. Refueling time is less than 15 minutes.

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Customer testing will begin in a few years and commercialization is planned for the second half of this decade.

“Hydrogen-powered electric trucks are particularly well-suited for long journeys and heavy, energy-intensive tasks. They could also be an option in countries with limited battery charging capacity, ”Alm says in a statement.

Fuel cells supplied Volvo Group and Daimler Truckin joint venture Cellcentric. It is building one of Europe’s largest mass-produced fuel cell plants, developed specifically for heavy vehicles.

Fuel cell technology is still in its infancy, and Volvo says the new technology has many benefits but also challenges. One of them is the large-scale supply of green hydrogen. The second is that the refueling infrastructure for heavy vehicles has not yet been developed.

“We expect the supply of green hydrogen to grow significantly over the next couple of years as many industries depend on it to reduce CO2 emissions,” Alm says.