Honda continues to position bets on hydrogen with the debut of a brand new Class 8 truck powered by probably the most ample ingredient within the universe. The idea car joins the automaker’s hydrogen gasoline cell SUV revealed earlier this yr. And it comes at a time of skyrocketing gasoline costs and a shaky outlook for hydrogen within the transportation house.
The truck runs on three of Honda’s new gasoline cell techniques, which are actually in manufacturing on the firm’s Gas Cell System Manufacturing three way partnership with Basic Motors in Brownstown, Michigan. Honda is positioning the gasoline cell system, which has double the sturdiness however two-thirds the prices of earlier generations, as central to its hydrogen enterprise technique that was developed alongside GM over the past decade.
The truck runs on three of Honda’s new gasoline cell techniques
Hydrogen gasoline cells use compressed hydrogen as their gasoline, releasing water vapor as its solely emission. A variety of automakers have just lately seized on the expertise for its benefits within the improvement of heavy-duty autos and cell energy turbines — and as a option to additional transition away from polluting gas-powered autos and meet their very own local weather objectives.
Hydrogen’s vitality content material by quantity is low, which makes storing hydrogen a problem as a result of it requires excessive pressures, low temperatures, or chemical processes to be saved compactly. Overcoming this problem is vital for light-duty autos as a result of they usually have restricted sizes and weight capacities for gasoline storage.
However hydrogen can be an especially dangerous funding, due to excessive costs and a weak refueling infrastructure. There are solely a handful of hydrogen autos out there on the market, with a lot of the market centered on California due to the state’s modest funding in gasoline stations. However even that’s trying fairly grim, with Shell saying earlier this yr that it was closing all seven of its hydrogen fueling stations in California.
In accordance with the Hydrogen Gas Cell Partnership, a paltry 223 new hydrogen gasoline cell vehicles had been offered within the US within the first quarter of 2024 — a 70 p.c drop from the identical interval a yr in the past.
Nonetheless, Honda stays bullish on hydrogen, particularly with regard to business autos. And it has a prepared accomplice in GM, which can be engaged on quite a few purposes for its gasoline cell expertise.