Hyundai News:Hyundai to Debut Fuel Cell Semi-Truck Next Week

[Drew Dowdell]

Hyundai is set to debut a hydrogen powered fuel cell semi-truck at the North American Commercial Vehicle show in Atlanta next week. The truck, named the HDC-6 Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea, the largest source of hydrogen on earth.

Not much is known yet about the truck, but in the teaser it is shown to be a very art deco design that Hyundai says is based on the streamline trains of the 1930s. Hyundai currently offers trucks from Class 2 to Class 8 and buses.

Look for an update on October 29th.

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[G. David Felt]

Should be exciting to see these compared to the Fuel Cell Class 8 Semi truck company that is spinning up to produce fuel cell trucks in Arizona I think.

[Drew Dowdell]

Or the Tesla semi. This in theory would refuel faster than a battery powered truck.

[G. David Felt]

3 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Or the Tesla semi. This in theory would refuel faster than a battery powered truck.

Nikola was the company I could not remember the name on.

https://nikolamotor.com/motor

Seems they have 3 semi Class 8 Fuel cell trucks to offer now. 

[daves87rs]

This has my attention....

[G. David Felt]

9 hours ago, daves87rs said:

This has my attention....

This makes more logical sense for long haul trucking than a pure battery Semi Class 6 or 8 that makes more sense for inner city deliveries and container yard movement.

Both have their place and I do see the end to Diesel over the next 25 years.

[ccap41]

1 minute ago, dfelt said:

This makes more logical sense for long haul trucking than a pure battery Semi Class 6 or 8 that makes more sense for inner city deliveries and container yard movement.

Both have their place and I do see the end to Diesel over the next 25 years.

I agree with all of that except the 25 years thing. That's a whole lot of infrastructure that would need to go up to eliminate diesel in 25 years. 

As of now, are there ANY hydrogen stations that a truck this size could fill up at?

Green are current stations. Grey is planned stations.

 

[G. David Felt]

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I agree with all of that except the 25 years thing. That's a whole lot of infrastructure that would need to go up to eliminate diesel in 25 years. 

As of now, are there ANY hydrogen stations that a truck this size could fill up at?

Yes, they have them at the port of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Salem, San Francisco, Bakersfield, LA and San Diego along with Hydrogen fueling at Seattle/Tacoma airport, Portland Airport, San Francisco Airport, LAX and San Diego Airport. They also have them in NY, DC and Chicago due to testing of Fuel Cell auto's.

Your right, it might be more than 25 years, but I can see major trucking firms putting in their own fueling systems much like how waste management has converted to CNG for all their hauling needs. Yes they say they still have about 15% of small sites to change over but due to costs, they will be done over the next 10 years as they amortize the costs across the company. I will say it is very nice to not have diesel belching garbage trucks in the city. CNG is much quieter and we all know electric motors are very quiet so having a hydrogen fuel cell generator makes total sense for a cleaner silent transport of goods.

[ccap41]

10 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Yes, they have them at the port of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Salem, San Francisco, Bakersfield, LA and San Diego along with Hydrogen fueling at Seattle/Tacoma airport, Portland Airport, San Francisco Airport, LAX and San Diego Airport. They also have them in NY, DC and Chicago due to testing of Fuel Cell auto's.

Yeah, that's such a small portion of the country.

The biggest difference will be for the privately owned trucks and smaller companies. I think that is the biggest reason it will not be 25 years because they aren't going to be putting in their own infrastructure and they will need cross country stations. 

I did notice, for the first time, a UPS truck had a sticker near their tank that said it used "liquid compressed natural gas". I was on the interstate so I didn't notice if it was quieter or louder than diesel but it did catch my eye. 

[G. David Felt]

22 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Yeah, that's such a small portion of the country.

The biggest difference will be for the privately owned trucks and smaller companies. I think that is the biggest reason it will not be 25 years because they aren't going to be putting in their own infrastructure and they will need cross country stations. 

I did notice, for the first time, a UPS truck had a sticker near their tank that said it used "liquid compressed natural gas". I was on the interstate so I didn't notice if it was quieter or louder than diesel but it did catch my eye. 

I think what will help the lone contract trucker as well as small companies is that companies like UPS, FedEx and Waste Management have all built their pumping stations to be also open to the public. This helps spread the use and cover the cost. I know the west coast is far more ahead of the Fuel cell and EV trend than most other areas of the country, but as Warren Buffet has stated about his own purchase of multiple train companies, the sooner they convert from Diesel generation to LNG generation the cleaner and quieter the planet becomes for the health of humanity. In it for everyone to have a healthier life.

[ccap41]

35 minutes ago, dfelt said:

I think what will help the lone contract trucker as well as small companies is that companies like UPS, FedEx and Waste Management have all built their pumping stations to be also open to the public. This helps spread the use and cover the cost. I know the west coast is far more ahead of the Fuel cell and EV trend than most other areas of the country, but as Warren Buffet has stated about his own purchase of multiple train companies, the sooner they convert from Diesel generation to LNG generation the cleaner and quieter the planet becomes for the health of humanity. In it for everyone to have a healthier life.

i definitely did not know their pumps/stations were open to the public. That really is a pretty big difference. 

I know there is a lot of R&D left before hydrogen can become financially feasible, but I've said it for about 10 years now, I believe hydrogen is the real future. I know it isn't some short 10-15 years away or anything but the unlimited fuel source is the difference maker. Until solar panels, wind, and water generators can 100% fuel the planet(which I don't think will be ever) I don't see electric-only being the forever fuel source. 

[Drew Dowdell]

and here I am just psyched that it's going to look like a 1930's train. 

[G. David Felt]

4 hours ago, ccap41 said:

i definitely did not know their pumps/stations were open to the public. That really is a pretty big difference. 

I know there is a lot of R&D left before hydrogen can become financially feasible, but I've said it for about 10 years now, I believe hydrogen is the real future. I know it isn't some short 10-15 years away or anything but the unlimited fuel source is the difference maker. Until solar panels, wind, and water generators can 100% fuel the planet(which I don't think will be ever) I don't see electric-only being the forever fuel source. 

FYI, In 2017 Waste Management added their 100th CNG station open to the public and 6,000th CNG truck then.

https://waste-management-world.com/a/100th-cng-fuelling-station-for-waste-management

According to their latest sustainability report (http://sustainability.wm.com/index.php), they are 100% west coast converted to CNG on all trucks and support vehicles. CNG stations are open to the public and 1/3 of the natural gas is from reclaimed land fill creation fueling those trucks. Midwest is much closer than the east coast to getting to 100% CNG as a replacement for diesel.

Be interesting to see the 2019 report when it gets published at the end of the year.

13 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

and here I am just psyched that it's going to look like a 1930's train. 

I will agree that it is pretty cool looking for a truck.

Choo Choo 🚄 

[USA-1]

On 10/21/2019 at 6:46 PM, dfelt said:

Nikola was the company I could not remember the name on.

https://nikolamotor.com/motor

Seems they have 3 semi Class 8 Fuel cell trucks to offer now. 

Yep, they're off Broadway just south of Sky Harbor Int. Airport!  Pretty sweet looking trucks.