Hyzon Eyes Q1 Testing for More Powerful FCEV Class 8 Truck
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Hyzon Motors plans to begin testing the next generation of its Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks with U.S. customers in the first quarter of 2024, ahead of the start of serial production in the second half of the year, said Pat Griffin, president of the company’s North American operations.
The HYHD8-200 is an FCEV with a 200-kW fuel cell and range of up to 350 miles. Hyzon is manufacturing test vehicles at its Bolingbrook, Ill., facility, Griffin told Transport Topics.
Hyzon’s management team sees the 200-kW truck as the company’s future, Griffin said, as the Rochester, N.Y.-based firm moves beyond 110-kW fuel cell-powered vehicles undergoing testing with potential customers.
In August, Hyzon completed the first commercial run of one of its liquid hydrogen-powered Class 8 trucks in Texas with Performance Food Group, which ranks No. 5 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest private carriers in North America. Starting in Temple, Texas, the truck completed deliveries to customers near Dallas, traveling more than 540 miles in a 16-hour run.
Griffin
In all, Hyzon, as of its second-quarter 2023 earnings statement dated Aug. 8, said that it completed 15 vehicle trials in North America between March 2022 and the end of June 2023. The company has built seven vehicles so far.
PFG in June committed to take five trucks, with an option to take up to 50. Of those, 15 would be 200-kW models. Hyzon will deliver the initial five trucks to PFG in the fourth quarter or in the first three months of 2024. Griffin said feedback from PFG on the trucks has been positive.
Hyzon also is set to deliver trucks to a drayage customer in Q4, he added.
Griffin acknowledged that Hyzon’s 110-kW truck has terrain and hill difficulties, so boosting the powertrain to 200 kW will increase both power and payload.
“What’s uniquely different? I think you can summarize it by saying the cost, weight and reliability are all improved,” he said.
Hyzon has just one fuel stack for its 200-kW truck, which Griffin said provides a 30% weight improvement compared with two 110-kW stacks.
The current basis for the HYHD8-200 is the Freightliner Cascadia in two day cab variants, but Griffin said Hyzon is not wed to one original equipment manufacturer.
“We’re a fuel cell company. We’re agnostic to the OEM that would use our fuel cell,” he said. “We are in discussions with other OEMs. Putting the powertrain on a different cab is not difficult.”
Hyzon has an upfitting deal with Fontaine Modification and can use any cab or chassis, said Griffin, who once worked for Fontaine.
Hyzon has experienced a lot of change over the past year. (Hyzon via YouTube)
The company also is using a Freightliner chassis in commercializing a garbage truck model — the Freightliner Econic for the Hyzon Refuse. A commercial trial of this model just started in Australia.
“Refuse is a terrific market for a hydrogen truck,” Griffin said, noting that the refuse industry can produce its own hydrogen from landfill sites and organic waste.
There are too many weight restrictions and impacts to steer down the battery-electric truck path, Griffin said, adding that a fuel cell truck is fully competitive with a diesel truck in the refuse segment.
The past 12 months have seen a lot of change at Hyzon. In September, the company committed to paying a $25 million fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the agency accused Hyzon of misleading investors about its business relationships and vehicle sales before and after a July 2021 merger with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp.
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Hyzon, the SEC alleged, misrepresented business dealings with potential customers and suppliers, creating the “false appearance that significant sales transactions were imminent.”
The company also was accused of falsely stating it delivered its first hydrogen-powered truck in July 2021, including posting a video online of a vehicle running on hydrogen that was not actually equipped to operate on the fuel.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, the complaint charged Hyzon, the company’s ex-CEO Craig Knight and former senior executive Max Holthausen with violating the anti-fraud and other provisions of federal securities laws.
Knight was replaced in an interim capacity by current CEO Parker Meeks in August 2022, heralding the start of an overhaul of the company’s executive team.
In April, Hyzon appointed Bappa Banerjee as the company’s first chief operating officer. Before joining Hyzon, Banerjee served as vice president of mining equipment at GE Transportation.
On Oct. 24, the company appointed Stephen Weiland as chief financial officer, effective Nov. 1. Most recently, he served as CFO at aircraft manufacturer Boom Supersonic.
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