General Motors has plans to offer a new Medium Duty Chevy truck utilizing an all-electric powertrain, as GM Authority covered previously. In addition to this new all-electric MD Chevy, The General will also offer a Medium Duty Chevy Truck using hydrogen power with its HydroTec fuel cell technology.
Confirmation of the two upcoming Medium Duty Trucks comes from General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who announced the new products during a recent call with investors. Barra also said indicated that the Chevy trucks would be offered as a complement to the upcoming BrightDrop commercial fleet of vehicles. Although Barra declined to share further details, the new vehicles are not expected to launch until after the 2025 calendar year.
The inclusion of HydroTec fuel cell technology in a new Medium Duty Chevy truck is an interesting development. Currently framed as an “affordable hydrogen fuel cell power solution for land, air, and sea applications,” HydroTec technology has been around for the last 15 years or so, with first-gen Chevy Equinox models used as prototypes.
The technology was later used with the Chevy Colorado ZH2 concept, a military-spec pickup truck developed for the U.S. armed forces. Later, GM also developed a military-oriented Chevy Silverado concept dubbed the Silverado ZH2 using the same hydrogen fuel cell tech for motivation.
For those readers who may be unaware, hydrogen fuel cell tech works by extracting electricity from a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. By combining hydrogen and oxygen, a hydrogen fuel cell will generate heat and an electrical current, as well as water (H2O). The electricity generated is then directed into a battery, which in turn powers an onboard electric motor.
The benefits of hydrogen fuel cell technology include zero local emissions, low noise levels, high torque from the electric motor, and, unlike all-electric powertrains, quick refuel times, assuming access to a hydrogen fuel source.
Put that all together, and HydroTec fuel cells could be a good fit for a future Medium Duty Chevy truck.
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Comments
Hydrogen is the way to go for commercial EVs, it’s to impractical for personal use.
It will get used a lot for HD trucks and commercial. Basically, because it’s the only viable replacement for diesel fueled OTR trucking? Every truck stop in the country will offer hydrogen in some form.
These are good systems. I have even driven one of the GM hydrogen vehicles.
The problem is in fueling as it is not fast and it is more complicated than electric. This would be a deal we’re fleets and commercial vehicles could do well with it vs the average car driver.
Pumping liquid Hydrogen is a process that not only could be explosive but also very cold. It needs to be done with care.
Also to put Hydrogen fills everywhere would not be practical.
But fleets could fill over night from large systems at their bases or at large truck stops.
Same to how some busses are using propane today.
True, the only issue with Propane in School Buses is the Fuel Economy is much lower than that of a Diesel Engine so long distance Field Trips that would range up to 100 + Miles wouldn’t quite be ideal, at least for now.
It seems to me that the deep freeze of Hydrogen is no longer used for vehicle use, but pressurising it to 350 or 700 bar.
A better way to go, if it can scale, is mobile green ammonia catalysts fuel cell technology currently in development that cracks the ammonia to release hydrogen at the point of use. Ammonia is easier to transport than compressed hydrogen gas.
GM built over a hundred 2009 Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles (I have the original Owner Manual) which proved the technology (and were the very first SUVS with an electric power train) , but refueling is still the problem, since it is lengthy ( needs more time than gasoline to refuel) and more dangerous ( the fuel is supercold, invisible, odorless, and tasteless). I would never buy or even recommend hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for public roads! Even NASA uses extreme measures to fuel up rockets!
The natural gas used in homes has little or no odor of its own. I was always told the stink you smell was added. Guessing the same could be done with hydrogen.
When ever I hear Hydrogen cell I think of the Hindenburg!
Hydrogen fuel cells for commercial / industrial applications only. Cummins is going big on this. Buy stock in Air Products Corp. AP will be a huge player in liquid Hydrogen. We are living in monumental and exciting times.
Hot August Nights in Reno this week has been a blast.
Can’t wait for the SEMA show in Sin City this fall.
Fuel cell systems do not run in liquid hydrogen, the tanks hold high pressure gas. So the concerns given about handling liquid hydrogen when fueling do not apply.
Hydrogen – the fuel which is always 50 years in the future….Even now…Seriously who is going to pay $16/ kg of Hydrogen when Gasoline is under $4 a gallon?
The select few with a disposable income…Lol.
Here in Germany, H₂ is being sold for 9.26 €/kg, which corresponds to 10.89 USD.
A KG of hydrogen moves a Mirai over 65 miles, so it’s well under 25 cents a mile at your made-up figure.
Toyota’s on track for price/performance parity (and coming $2/KG hydrogen) in 2025… at which point it’s an absolute no-brainer for everything except City cars like the LEAF.
HAHA – Made up figure eh? Germany paying $11/kg is probably a subsidized price as it is a ‘zero-emission’ – which supposedly is greatly in vogue there.
And it probably isn’t taxed like gasoline there, so with such artificial price constructs it (H2) will almost certainly do better there than in the States. They don’t have US$3.20/128 ounce gallon of gasoline in most of Europe.
I’m not holding my breath for your ‘$2/kg’ H2 in the States. The maintenance cost just to keep the dispenseries band-aided together was over $16/kg alone. Those dispenseries that haven’t EXPLODED yet, that is. Factoring in the Dispensery Explosions (or the Hydrogen Plant which fed the dispenseries in California which recently exploded) pushes the average cost a Tad higher.
The highest price in CA currently is in Oakland where it’s $13 a KG… but the trendlines are steeply declining.
Tom:
I did research this a bit and apparently technology has advanced over the past 10 years to the point where Hydrogen has at least nearly gotten to the point of near practicality – I have to admit..
As an example of this, Linde’s in-house developed ‘Ionic Compression’ claims to have reduced the horsepower requirement from the old high maintenance Diaphragm Compressors –
Two technology innovations in one.
Firstly Reciprocating compressors historically could not be used due to blow-by contamination of the H2 that could not be removed later… This systems solves that problem by using ionic (liquid salt) oil as the compression interface, and allows almost constant temperature compression as the heat is removed from the cylinder itself – greatly reducing unwanted the ‘heat of compression’ normally occurring…they claim a 40% reduction in power requirement, which may be a bit fanciful at this point – but if so, then a very small Hydrogen Dispensery could get by with only a 130 hp electric motor…To this must be added the refrigeration needed for the compressed hydrogen at the Dispenser Nozzle, but things are getting into the realm of practicality..
Of course, most gas stations use only 1/100th of the electric power of even this greatly reduced consumption, as 1 or 2 – two horsepower submersible pumps run a large gas station operation.
But its better than the 500 or so horsepower that used to be required by the early Hydrogen dispensery attempts….
Also – the $17/kg maintenance cost will probably be reduced greatly – since the new Ionic Compression can pump ten times as much hydrogen before maintenance is required….
So your claim that Hydrogen Dispensery cost will be greatly reduced in the near future seems to have much merit…
It will be economic in Europe due to the so-artificially-high gasoline prices there…. Almost any alternative technology will fly in those locales.
So hopefully they will build the truck on their own and not a JV and will do well with this.
This is what I’ll be looking to transition into until the options grow.
Again, this is big. Fits in nicely with GM’s fuel cell plans with Navistar for trucks and WABCO for locomotives, not to mention BrightDrop.
??? WABCO is long gone and never made locomotives.
Navistar is now owned by Volkswagen. Please check your facts before you post.
Navistar is a subsidiary of Traton, VW’s holding for trucks and buses, with Scania, MAN, Navistar and VW Camiões e buses (Brasil).
I searched for “fuel cell” on NAVISTAR dot COM, and found a document which explains the cooperation with GM on fuel cells for electric motors.
On TRATON dot COM however nothing.
WABCO is now ZF Wabco. The rail components part was separated out and merged to what is called now WABTEC.
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Wabtec Corporation (derived from Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation) is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999.[6][7] It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Wabtec manufactures products for locomotives, freight cars and passenger transit vehicles, and builds new locomotives up to 6,000 horsepower (4 MW).
The company merged with GE Transportation on February 25, 2019.
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from Wikipedia on WABTEC
And this company actually DOES work with GM on hydrogen based fuel cells to generate electricity for electric motors.
Search for it on WABTECCORP dot COM
So, Bob B. was not so wrong, just a little bit erring on the company history of WABCO
WABTEC (Wabco) bought GE Transportation 2 years ago.
On May 21, 2018, GE and Wabtec confirmed the merger of GE Transportation with Wabtec in an $11 billion deal, completed on February 25, 2019, that saw Wabtec shareholders take a 50.8% shareholding in the merged company, with GE shareholders owning 24.3% and GE itself 24.9%.
It seems we have the tech but we need infrastructure.
Every Loves, Pilot, Flying J and Roadie’s in the country will have hydrogen for big rigs. I’m looking forward to towing on hydrogen, which is completely impractical with BEVs….
A lot of natural gas utilities are looking into this.
Air Liquide, Linde, Air Products, will rock when Hydrogen comes into being.
One of these companies need to start making more Hydrogen stations at every airport for a start. Hydrogen is a game changer for all transportation. We can’t fall behind anymore in technology. Hydrogen is the solution
No news in over a year on this. The H dream is fading fast.