Big questions, few answers

Like a mist clearing from the sea as the sun rises, it seems that the zero carbon future for road transport is gradually getting clearer.

problem of where they get charged and refuelled.

Steve Hobson Editor Motor Transport

Some people at the DfT have appeared blinkered when it comes to decarbonising road freight transport – it is all very well saying focus on the easy stuff and worry about the difficult bits later, but if your business is long-distance haulage with maximum weight trucks and trailers then your whole life is the difficult bit.

Even the easy bits aren’t that easy – yes there are plenty of pretty good battery electric 3.5-tonne vans on the market, but if you happen to run 50 at one site then charging them overnight at the depot or at drivers’ homes is still a massive headache.

At least we have a fair idea of how trucks up to the 26-tonne limit that will have to go zero carbon by 2035 will look – battery electric probably up to 18 tonnes and then batteries possibly with a hydrogen fuel cell range extender up to 26 tonnes.

Of course, these beasts will be very expensive to buy or lease, they will carry less freight and there will still be the

Over 26 tonnes, which have to go zero emissions by 2040, there remain technical challenges with batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, chiefly space and heat dissipation. A possible solution in the form of the spark ignition hydrogen internal combustion engine is emerging.

DAF parent Paccar, JCB and Bosch all have viable hydrogen ICEs suitable for heavy-duty applications well down the R&D road. Similar to gas engines, they will not be totally zero emissions but the exhaust can be treated with an SCR system and the proponents are confident they will qualify as zero emissions come 2040.

Still, these will not be a simple or direct replacement for diesel engines. Hydrogen is tricky to store, very explosive and, at the moment, expensive. Interestingly, even if the hydrogen is made from fossil fuels it will still be counted as zero tailpipe emissions, just like battery electric vehicles even if the electricity is made by burning gas or even coal in our power stations.

But that’s another story.