Munich, Germany-based commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus will be the first European producer to launch a small truck series with a hydrogen combustion engine. The initially planned small series of around 200 units will be delivered to customers in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland and selected non-European countries as early as 2025.
Designated the MAN hTGX, the vehicle offers an alternative zero-emission drive variant for transporting heavy goods in construction, tank or timber applications. The hTGX can also be an environmentally friendly alternative to battery electric trucks for use in areas without sufficient charging infrastructure or for markets where sufficient hydrogen is already available.
MAN plans to make its battery electric truck available to customers for the first time in 2024 and scale it up in 2025. The company has been a market leader for electric city buses in Europe since 2023.
“We are continuing to focus on battery electric vehicles to decarbonize road freight transport,” says Friedrich Baumann, MAN executive board member responsible for Sales & Customer Solutions. “These currently have clear advantages over other drive concepts in terms of energy efficiency and operating and energy costs. However, trucks powered by hydrogen combustion engines are a useful addition for special applications and markets. We anticipate that we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-powered trucks.
“For special applications, hydrogen combustion — or, in the future, fuel cell technology — is a suitable supplement,” adds Baumann. “The hydrogen combustion engine H45 is based on the proven D38 diesel engine and is produced at the engine and battery plant in Nuremberg. The use of familiar technology enables us to enter the market at an early stage and thus provides a decisive impetus for the ramp-up of the hydrogen infrastructure. With the hTGX, we have now added an attractive product to our zero-emission portfolio.”
A hydrogen drive is suitable for special transport tasks that require a special axle configuration or where there is no space for the battery on the frame. The hTGX offers high payloads and maximum ranges of up to 600 kilometers in its initially offered 6×2 and 6×4 axle variants. The H45 hydrogen combustion engine used has an output of 383 kW or 520 HP and a torque of 2500 Nm at 900–1300 rpm.
The direct injection of hydrogen into the engine ensures fast power delivery. With hydrogen compressed to 700 bar (CG H2) and a tank capacity of 56 kg, the vehicle can be refueled in less than 15 minutes. With less than 1 gram of CO2 per tonne-kilometer (tkm), the hTGX will fulfill the criteria of a “zero-emission vehicle” under the new planned European Union CO2 legislation.
MAN supports customers with comprehensive service and consulting when they switch from diesel to zero-emission vehicles.
The company is also developing and testing hydrogen engines for its MAN Engines division in a wide range of applications on- and off-road as well as on water.
