BMVI funds three projects for climate-friendly truck drives

The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is funding three projects for climate-friendly truck drives. The three projects receiving funding are SELv from RWTH Aachen, HyLightCOM from Opel, and Scale-e-Drive from Daimler Truck AG.

(Berlin) Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer today presented funding of a total of 24.4 million euros to three projects developing climate-friendly drives for commercial vehicles.

Andreas Scheuer: “With alternative drives, we want to move towards zero-emission logistics on the road. That is why we support companies in bringing sustainable drive technologies to market readiness and deployment. The question is not whether, but when battery-electric and hydrogen as well as fuel cell drives will be competitive in road freight transport. We are actively addressing this issue, as around 90 percent of CO2 emissions in the transport sector come from road traffic, with trucks accounting for a third of that.”

About the funded projects:

SELv

(Funding: approximately 16.9 million euros) The project from RWTH Aachen focuses on retrofitting heavy trucks to fuel cell drives – independently of manufacturers for both old and new vehicles. A fuel cell-based modular drive system is being developed to enable exactly that.

HyLightCOM

(Funding: approximately 5.7 million euros) The HyLightCOM project from Opel Automobile GmbH involves the development of a light commercial vehicle with hydrogen fuel cell drive and the testing of five prototypes as a basis for mass production starting in 2025.

Scale-e-Drive

(Funding: approximately 1.8 million euros) The project from Daimler Truck AG and the University of Kassel focuses on the development and testing of battery-electric commercial vehicles with a permissible total weight of 3.5 and 7 tons.

So far, there are only a few vehicles with combustion engines in this class.

Information on BMVI’s hydrogen funding: The BMVI is funding research and development as well as market activation measures as part of the National Innovation Program for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP). Approximately 80 million euros per year are available for the NIP starting in 2021. An additional 1.6 billion euros are available until 2024 for the implementation of the National Hydrogen Strategy. Furthermore, the BMVI plans a technology-open funding for the purchase of buses, commercial vehicles, and rail vehicles with alternative drives, including vehicles with hydrogen and fuel cell drives, as well as the necessary refueling infrastructure for these vehicles.

All information about the funding programs

Photo: © BMVI

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