Metrans is Sustainable and Quiet on the Rails
28. January 2021Fraunhofer IML and Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences with Center for Textile Logistics
29. January 2021The Austrian logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss is testing a hydrogen truck at its Swiss branch in Pratteln/Basel. The vehicle was received earlier this week in Altenrhein/Switzerland. The use of this truck is expected to save up to 80 tons of CO2 annually. With this vehicle, the company aims to gather experience for potential further deployments of this vehicle type.
(Altenrhein/Pratteln/CH; Lauterach/AT) Since the beginning of this week, a hydrogen truck has been added to the vehicle fleet of Gebrüder Weiss. The Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell model delivered to the Altenrhein branch in Switzerland is fueled with so-called “green hydrogen” instead of diesel. This commercial vehicle can save around 80 tons of CO2 emissions per year. “The Corona pandemic has somewhat pushed the challenge of climate change out of the top headlines. In the logistics industry, we are continuing to work intensively with manufacturers on alternative drive systems. With the deployment of our first hydrogen truck, Gebrüder Weiss once again proves to be at the forefront of sustainable solutions. We want to gather experience with this technology to prepare for a possible broad practical application,” says Wolfram Senger-Weiss, Chairman of the Management Board at Gebrüder Weiss.
25 tons payload and a range of around 600 km
The Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell is a 36-ton truck designed to transport around 25 tons of goods. The truck has a range of about 600 kilometers. It is powered by a 350-kilowatt electric motor, which is supplied with electricity through a chemical reaction of water and oxygen. No pollutants come from the exhaust pipe, only water vapor. The Swiss hydrogen filling station network is under construction but already allows for use throughout Eastern Switzerland. At Gebrüder Weiss, the hydrogen truck will primarily be used for a customer in the renewable energy sector.
According to the manufacturer, 2,000 such hydrogen trucks are to be produced and delivered by the end of 2021. “We are proud to be among the first recipients of these vehicles worldwide. We see the H2 truck as an interesting alternative to existing drive technologies and plan to deploy it in Austria and southern Germany in the future, provided the necessary infrastructure is in place,” says Wolfram Senger-Weiss.
Further step towards testing environmentally friendly drive technologies
For Gebrüder Weiss, the deployment of the hydrogen truck is another step towards testing environmentally friendly drive technologies in everyday logistics. The logistics provider already operates several gas trucks in Austria, Germany, and Serbia, as well as fully electric trucks in the Vienna and Graz metropolitan areas. Gebrüder Weiss is also a member of the H2 Mobility Switzerland support association. This cooperative designed and implemented the world’s first ecosystem for the practical use of hydrogen drive.
Photos: © Gebrüder Weiss; Stefan Peter / Caption for the cover image: At the handover of the hydrogen truck in Rothenburg, Switzerland (l. to r.): Marc Freymüller, CEO Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility AG, Peter Waldenberger, Head of Corporate Administrative Support, and Oskar Kramer, Country Manager Switzerland (both Gebrüder Weiss) / Caption left: Wolfram Senger-Weiss, Chairman of the Management Board at Gebrüder Weiss
