Dr Elmar Zeiler Siemens Mobility Battery and Hydrogen: Will They Replace Conventional Diesel Engines on Many Routes in the Future? “I would like to turn this question into an appeal: diesel vehicles will be replaced – and that should be our standard – by battery and hydrogen trains in the future. What is the prerequisite for this? The technology has to be there and we’ve heard already that the technology is there. There are other prerequisites and I’d like to address them, taking a closer look at the two technologies. Let me start with battery technology: our battery technology has been in passenger operation for 12 months now, in this case in Austria with Austrian Federal Railways [CityJet Eco]. We’ve completed 70,000km in battery operation. We can travel distances of 80km between recharging. We can learn a lot about battery technology and we’re pleased that this technology isn’t just meeting but exceeding our expectations. That makes us optimistic about this technology as we look towards the future. If you look at current lifecycle costs, a battery train today is already significantly superior
to a diesel train, based on whole life-cycle costs. The up-front cost of purchasing a battery train is somewhat higher. Now hydrogen: we’ve been investing a lot into this technology for many years now. The situation there is still somewhat different. The life-cycle costs here are almost equal to those of a diesel train. But here too hydrogen technology is making great leaps forward. We’re not the only manufacturer gaining insights in this area. The leaps we can expect for this technology are surely still the biggest to come. The other prerequisite when it comes to hydrogen – and this is part of my appeal to all stakeholders involved – is the associated infrastructure. Major steps are still necessary here. We can’t just look at the rail industry here. Other transport modes such as regional bus networks or delivery services are also involved and this will have the outcome of reducing the cost of hydrogen. At Siemens we offer both technologies. We see advantages for both technologies, depending on the particular circumstances and based on that we’re convinced that these technologies will quite rapidly replace diesel.”
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