E-Trucks Europe builds hydrogen-electric hybrid refuse lorries
E-Trucks Europe builds hydrogen-electric hybrid refuse lorries. The driveline for these refuse lorries is 100% electric which means that they are quiet and that they don’t produce any greenhouse gasses or particulate matter. To increase their range, these vehicles have been fitted with a hydrogen system, which converts the gas into electricity with just pure water as a waste product. This allows the vehicles to be used 24 hours a day whilst remaining quiet and clean.
The chicken and egg problem with hydrogen remains, however. You can, in principle, fill-up on hydrogen at petrol stations, but there are too few of them with a filling point for hydrogen so that the demand for such vehicles remains low. A hydrogen filling station will only be commercially viable if there are enough customers who use it. In order to break this chicken and egg situation, collaboration is required so that supply and demand can be created locally at the same time.
The Belgian-Dutch co-operative venture ‘Waterstofnet’ [‘Hydrogen Network’] promotes and supervises this collaboration with the support of Interreg Flanders – the Netherlands. E-Trucks Europe has observed an increase in demand for hydrogen refuse lorries from local governments, particularly for the urban collection of rubbish. Often there is also demand for hydrogen cars. E-Trucks Europe wants to play a promotional role in creating the demand for hydrogen-powered mobility, by informing clients of this clean form of transport. They also want to develop a brand independent concept to maintain and repair truck and car hydrogen systems. Only an extremely limited number of dealers currently possess the expertise and facilities to do this. “The lack of service and maintenance facilities for hydrogen vehicles must not be allowed to be a barrier for the demand for this sustainable form of transport”, according to the Beukers family.
