Abreast of its growing hydrogen fuel initiatives, Cummins is also convincing leading truck manufacturers in North America and Europe to integrate its fuel cell powertrains into their vehicle platforms. It recently closed two important deals that will place their fuel cell systems aboard Daimler Truck North America, the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America, and Scania, a major provider of trucks and buses for heavy transport based in Sweden.
Cummins and Daimler are collaborating to upfit and validate Freightliner Cascadia trucks with a Cummins hydrogen fuel cell powertrain for use in North America. Freightliner will leverage Cummins’ fourth generation fuel cell powertrain, which provides improved power density, efficiency and durability. The joint effort will support both organizations’ goals to reduce emissions across product offerings and operations. Upon successful validation, the companies intend to have initial units available in 2024 for selected customers.
“Cummins and Daimler Truck have a strong history of partnership, and this next step into fuel cell electric vehicles is an exciting development for zero-emissions transport,” said Amy Davis, president of New Power at Cummins. “Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising solution for the demanding requirements of heavy-duty trucking. Our collaboration in this market is an important milestone for both companies as we work to accelerate the shift to a carbon-free economy.”
“CO2-neutral commercial transportation must not only be technically feasible, but also economically viable for our valued customers,” said Rakesh Aneja, vice president and chief of eMobility at DTNA. “Depending on the customer application and energy infrastructure considerations, hydrogen-powered vehicles can absolutely complement battery-powered electric vehicles in accelerating our carbon-neutral journey. We are pleased to expand our partnership with Cummins to include hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles in our future portfolio.”
In the collaboration with Scania, Cummins is providing an initial 20 proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems to be integrated into Scania’s existing battery-electric vehicle platform. Once the systems are incorporated into the Scania trucks, the 20 fuel cell-electric vehicles will be delivered in 2024 to the HyTrucks Consortium, a hydrogen initiative that is one of the largest European projects to deploy heavy-duty, zero-emissions fleets into Europe’s high-traffic areas. The collaboration is not the first time Cummins and Scania have worked together on hydrogen. Since the beginning of 2020, four electric Scania trucks powered by Cummins fuel cell systems have been in operation in Norway as part of a first-of-its-kind pilot project with ASKO, Norway’s largest grocery wholesaler. For more info, see www.cummins.com.
