HY on the agenda as a diesel substitute

Hydrogen is getting hype and investment in Australia as a freight fuel of the future but not everyone is convinced.

The alternative truck-propulsion outlook is beset with experts of various stripes debating battery electric vehicles (BEV) versus hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEV).

Interestingly, global truckmakers and their prospective disruptors are fuelling this development – the former by having something of a bet each way and the latter by having the two biggest names, Tesla and Nikola, championing one or the other.

This coalescing of positions – with the truckmakers settling on a mantra of battery electric for local and regional tasks and fuel cells for long-haul, or what passes for that in the US and Europe – has led to academics and experts to look deeper into the details.

This, while energy companies including, increasingly, those operating in Australia, are progressing plans to get the hydrogen supply infrastructure in position to support what state governments like to call the hydrogen economy.

Image: Fuso Vision F-CELL light truck concept