Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2022 - 27

ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT
" Class 3 is a much larger
market than the others
combined, so that's the
one to focus on. "
- Robert Bollinger, CEO
in late 2023 as part of the NorCAL Zero
Project. This initial deployment will be
followed by a broader, official release of
these hydrogen trucks in the U.S. market,
according to Hyundai test engineer
Steve Ramirez.
Hyundai does not have any of these
hydrogen-powered tractors operating in
the U.S. just yet, but it does have more
than 1,000 rigid box-truck versions of
the Xcient Fuel Cell trucks currently on
the road in Switzerland. The first batch
of these trucks arrived in Switzerland in
2020 and have now carried freight
more than 2 million miles (3.2 million
km) in that country.
" They're still going strong, " Ramirez
said. " They're doing basically extensive
market research out there with this fuel
cell. " Hyundai also sells diesel-powered
Xcient trucks in Korea and other markets.
The company currently only has
two fuel cell Xcient tractors and brought
both to Long Beach for display and
ride-and-drives. The hydrogen Xcient
tractor uses two fuel cell stacks from
the hydrogen-powered Nexo CUV.
Hyundai engineers did not have to do
much to the stacks, which together provide
180 kW, other than a little tweaking
to accommodate higher voltages for
the semi-truck. The difference between
the Swiss box trucks and the U.S.bound
tractors lies in the hydrogen
tanks. The European trucks hold around
35 kg (77 lb) of hydrogen in seven, 350bar
(5,075-psi) tanks; the U.S. tractor
uses 10 tanks rated at 700 bar (10,150
psi) for around 70 kg (154 lb) of H2 -
therefore providing more range.
Unloaded, the Swiss trucks can go
around 300 miles (485 km), while the
tractor with no trailer can go around
800 miles (1,290 km). Loaded with up
to a 82,000-lb. (37,195 kg) GVW trailer,
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
Hyundai announced that it would deploy 30 6x4 Xcient Fuel Cell Class 8 tractors to the Port of
Oakland in late 2023 as part of the NorCAL Zero Project.
the tractor can drive around 400 miles
(645 km).
" We're working on long-haul operations,
but that's going to need fuel optimization,
more powerful fuel cells, maybe
even a sleeper, depending on your
long-haul operations, " Ramirez said.
" That's going to be in the future, " he
asserted. " Right now, we're focusing
more on short haul, which I think is
what most alternative-energy concept
trucks are doing. "
Volvo Trucks: LIGHTS lessons
Volvo Trucks provided some updates
on the evolution of its LIGHTS program,
which ran for three years. One of the
requirements when Volvo Trucks and
its partners, including the South Coast
Air Quality Management District, started
LIGHTS (which stands for Low
Impact Green Heavy Transport
Solutions) was that the end result had
to be actual sales of real, production
trucks that customers want and can
August 2022 27
Bollinger will start building its commercial EV lineup with the new Class 3 platform before moving
to larger vehicles.
FROM TOP: BOLLINGER; HYUNDAI

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2022

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