Suddenly….everything’s coming up HYZON
WHERE BEFORE THERE WAS MOSTLY HYUNDAI, Nikola and Daimler Trucks talking about hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric heavy-duty trucks, suddenly….there’s also now HYZON.
The announcement that Kiwi energy company Hiringa has signed a heads of agreement with United States-based HYZON Motors to supply a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled trucks has come on the back of a flurry of announcements from the formerly unknown company.
Unknown….because it was only created in March this year, by Singapore-based Horizon Technology – a longtime pioneer of fuel cell commercialisation. It says it has developed the world’s most powerful fuel cell stack – a 500hp/372kW single module, well-suited to installation in heavy trucks, buses and logistics vehicles.
In March, it was announced that HYZON was starting business in the United States – taking over General Motors’ former fuel cell facility as its global HQ.
It will, said HYZON, begin series production there of fuel cell powertrains and “support integration” of heavy-duty trucks and city buses – the first of them to be delivered early next year. It will be the first US States-based manufacturer of high-power PEM fuel cell modules for commercial vehicles.
The same month, a new partnership was announced, linking HYZON and United Kingdom hydrogen project developer Protium.
And in May, HYZON Motors announced that it was establishing a division in Australia to service NZ and Australia – and was “considering the options for locating our first fuel cell commercial vehicle integration facility.”
In July, it announced the opening of a new European HQ and manufacturing centre in the Netherlands – this achieved by teaming-up with Holthausen Clean Technology, a company that has been converting standard medium-duty and HD diesel trucks into fuel cell vehicles “for years.”
In August came an announcement that HYZON Motors had struck a deal with Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals, to build a fleet of 10 hydrogen fuel cell buses for one of its West Australian mines.
The $AU32million project will also see a hydrogen refuelling station established, using energy from a Fortescue solar-gas hybrid system.
Also in August, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies chairman George Gu said that its plan is to “work with partners to decarbonise the transport industry, by starting from the heavy truck sector, without adding customer additional cost.
“Our goal is to bring both affordable trucks and affordable hydrogen to end users, starting from now – not in three or 10 years.”
Last September, Horizon showed off the first of a huge order of hydrogen fuel cell trucks built in a partnership with Chinese company JMC – a JV with Ford Turkey.
Horizon said that its delivery of 20 of the 42-tonne fuel cell trucks began a 2000-truck order, to be delivered over several years.
That makes it, said Horizon, “easily the largest fuel cell heavy duty truck fleet in the world.”
T&D