Martin Daum
The head of Daimler Trucks is looking to electric drives.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt, Munich The diesel engine currently seems to be hard to replace in trucks. Martin Daum does not want to leave any doubt about that. Commercial vehicles with alternative drives are currently still significantly more expensive to purchase and operate than combustion engines, the head of Daimler’s truck division told Handelsblatt. “If we had a ready-made hydrogen or battery truck for long-distance transport today, we wouldn’t sell a single vehicle,” states the 60-year-old.
In the medium term, of course, that will change, in the long term even fundamentally, believes Daum. As more and more cities are banning diesel vehicles and environmental regulations are increasing worldwide, freight forwarders and truck manufacturers have to change course. Daimler board member Daum presented his approach to the green turnaround in heavy goods traffic in Berlin on Wednesday in the presence of Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer.
Accordingly, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles wants to start series production of the Mercedes-Benz eActros in the coming year. The first battery-electric truck from the brand with the star should have a range of over 200 kilometers and be used in urban distribution, for example as a delivery vehicle for supermarkets. This rather small market segment is to be followed by a big hit in width in 2024. “Then we will bring the eActros LongHaul for long-distance traffic with an electric range of around 500 kilometers,” says Daum.
The future heart of the portfolio will not be a battery, but a hydrogen truck. With the futuristic-looking GenH2 concept truck, Daimler is for the first time giving an outlook on its future flagship truck with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. The hydrogen truck is to go into customer testing in 2023, and then go into series production from 2025. Daimler manager Daum does not have doubts about the change: “The fuel cell is not an exotic solution, but is becoming mainstream in trucks.”
Due to the higher energy density, Daum advocates the use of liquid instead of gaseous hydrogen. On the one hand, this should help to raise the performance of fuel cell trucks to the same level as that of combustion engines. On the other hand, liquid hydrogen is easier to transport, explains Daum: “Since green hydrogen will have to be shipped to Germany from sunny countries in the future, it makes sense to rely on liquid hydrogen.”
When it comes to trucks, it’s the price that counts
But saying goodbye to the combustion engine will take time. Daum knows that. The manager is not a dreamer, but a cool, calculating realist. While soft factors such as design or the worldview of a brand are decisive when buying a vehicle in the passenger car sector, in the commercial vehicle sector the price alone counts. But according to the McKinsey management consultancy, the so-called Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a hydrogen truck will not be lower than that of a diesel semitrailer for the first time until 2027. Reducing the costs of alternative drives is a tough undertaking. “We can only seal our way slowly here,” states Daum.
In some niches, the end of diesel could even be delayed for decades. Daum can only partially imagine the all-terrain Unimog, which is used by the fire brigade, to be fully electric: “It would simply be unnecessary to drive two tons of batteries into the forest instead of two tons of water to put out fires.” Tractors under the acronym SLT, which can pull turbines or space shuttles weighing up to 200 tons, will be offered by Daimler “for a long time to come as diesel”.
Daum is convinced that most trucks will be battery or hydrogen powered by 2030. Before that, however, there is an urgent need for action. The EU is forcing truck manufacturers to reduce their CO2 emissions in their fleets by at least 15 percent by 2025. Otherwise high penalties could be imposed.
The problem: “The diesel technology is largely optimized,” says Bernd Heid, partner at McKinsey. In his opinion, not even five percent of CO2 can be saved by improving the efficiency of diesel engines. In order to meet the EU climate targets, the truck companies have no choice but to save the remaining ten percent of emissions with the help of alternative drives.
Battery trucks will pay off in 2023
The good news: At least in regional transport, the first battery trucks in Europe will pay off from 2023. “It will be a real business case,” predicts Heid. Because in three quarters of the applications in distribution traffic, there shouldn’t be any range problems. “The classic supermarket trucks are usually on the road no longer than eight to ten hours a day and cover 150 to 300 kilometers,” says Heid.
In contrast to the passenger car sector, electric trucks do not need a nationwide charging network. “On the one hand, distribution trucks return to the company’s depots in the evening. On the other hand, the trucks mostly travel fixed routes on long journeys, ”explains the industry expert. The result: At the beginning all that is needed is a focused network of hydrogen filling stations and fast charging stations on the transit routes, which then has to be further consolidated with investments of billions.
Newcomers such as the controversial US start-up Nikola and, to date, rather small truck manufacturers such as Hyundai see the drive turnaround as their opportunity to steal market share from the industry giant Daimler. The attackers have more ambitious schedules, especially for the hydrogen truck. In the summer, for example, Hyundai shipped the first ten Xcient fuel cell trucks to Switzerland. The fleet is expected to grow to 1,000 hydrogen trucks by 2023.
Customers are federal retailers, logisticians and filling station operators such as Coop, Migros, Galliker or Agrola, who have come together in a private initiative under the umbrella of the H2 Mobility Switzerland association to build one of the largest hydrogen fleets in the world.
Toyota has already presented several fuel cell trucks. The latest model from the Japanese in cooperation with the US manufacturer Kenworth has a range of almost 500 kilometers. At the same time, Toyota is working with Hino Motors on another fuel cell truck. Nikola and his partner Iveco want to start series production of fuel cell trucks in Ulm from 2023 – also years before Daimler. But one in Stuttgart does not fear a Tesla moment like it once was in the passenger car sector with commercial vehicles.
“We are by no means behind. One or the other competitor may have bigger plans, but we are leaders in implementation, ”says Daimler Trucks boss Daum. His company already has 400 electric trucks and buses in use, with which customers have driven more than seven million kilometers. “Hardly anyone can keep up,” explains the manager. “We don’t need to hide from anyone.”
Advantage in terms of production costs
Nevertheless, he takes every competitor seriously. This probably also applies to the plans of Tesla boss Elon Musk, who wants to get into the commercial vehicle business. As the world market leader, Daimler sees itself at an advantage: his company could transfer the costs of developing battery and hydrogen trucks to more vehicles than the competition, according to Daum. Nevertheless, saying goodbye to diesel will also be an enormous feat for Daimler.
“If you have to cover three different drive types instead of one in the future, it is clear that the development costs will increase with the same number of units,” explains Daum. The result: the manufacturers are forced to cooperate. “Everything is conceivable,” says Daum. His group is planning an extensive joint venture with its main competitor, Volvo Trucks. The two leading commercial vehicle groups in the world want to jointly develop fuel cells.
On the other hand, Daum wants to work more closely with his car colleagues on battery drives. In the auto business, Mercedes is trying to catch up with Tesla this year and next with a large-scale electric offensive. Group boss Ola Källenius proclaimed the motto “Electric first” in Stuttgart in order to be able to comply with environmental regulations. This will also apply to the truck business in the future.
“A quarter of a year ago, we transferred the development of alternative drives and the development of combustion engines to one area. We now have more than a thousand engineers who keep an eye on all the drives, ”says Daimler Board Member Daum. The days when the old combustion engine guard and the electrical developers worked independently in their silos are over. In future, battery and fuel cell trucks will be manufactured on the same line as diesel trucks.
With its agenda, Daum has set the strategic course for saying goodbye to the combustion engine. Success is by no means guaranteed. Three factors are needed to get climate-neutral trucks on the road in large numbers: good products, the necessary infrastructure – and the use of battery and hydrogen trucks must pay off for customers, says Daum. “If we fail at one of these points, no market for alternatively powered trucks will develop.”
More: Nikola founder Trevor Milton is fighting for his life’s work