VON WALLFELD EXPRESS VON

ANDREAS VON WALLFELD IS CLEARLY A MAJOR PLAYER IN DAIMLER’S GLOBAL TRUCK OPERATIONS AND RECENTLY JETTED DOWN UNDER TO AUSTRALIA TO VISIT ONE OF THE DAIMLER TRUCK EMPIRE’S MOST FAR FLUNG, BUT IMPORTANT OUTPOSTS AND T&TA HAD THE CHANCE TO SIT DOWN FOR A CHAT WITH THE MAN IN CHARGE OF THE COMPANY’S EXPORT MARKETS TO GET A HANDLE ON WHERE WHERE THING ARE HEADED AT THE WORLD’S BIGGEST TRUCK MAKER.

Andreas Von Wallfeld is a Daimler lifer. He started at the venerable and storied corporation straight out of university in 1998, where he had successfully studied for an MBA. Almost a quarter century later, in January last year, Von Wallfeld was appointed head of Daimler Truck and Bus, Overseas, meaning he is in charge of everything to do with Daimler Truck outside Europe. It is a fairly big brief, given he now oversees 120 markets across the three Daimler brands, with combined sales of 70,000 trucks a year, into total markets of around three billion people, generating revenue of between three and four billion euros each year.

Andreas Von Wallfeld is a straight shooting, no-nonsense bloke and like many successful international business executives he is somehow able to present an air of sharpness and freshness, even after a whirlwind trip across several Australian cities, visits to major customers and dealerships and many flights, not the least being a long one from Germany just a few days before.

When he arrives at Goldstar Transport in Perth, Von Wallfeld looks like he just stepped out of a Hugo Boss catalogue. Uncrumpled, unruffled and with a beaming smile, his relaxed easy manner belies the fact that he has been inside aircraft for 36 of the past 72 hours.

“I was really looking forward to the trip, because Australia is one of our biggest markets that we have for Daimler Truck overseas, and it’s great for me because I’ve only been in the job for 11 months,” said Von Wallfeld.

Von Wallfeld says Australia is a little different to other markets because it’s one of only four Daimler markets where it sells all three brands – Mercedes, Freightliner and Fuso, not to mention Western Star, which of course is sold through independent distributor, Penske’s channels.

T&TA met up with Von Wallfeld in Perth, at the tail end of his three-day Australian mission, and witnessed his interaction with some key customers, including the handover of the first Fuso eCanter to be delivered to a WA customer, Goldstar Transport. His ability to communicate with customers was on display in plain sight and he showed an easy and comfortable manner that puts people at ease.

“It’s amazing for me because I’ve never talked to customers like Goldstar and Centurion and others that operate trucks from all three brands, and to see which application they use each of the brands for, is very interesting to me,” he said. As mentioned, one of Von Wallfeld’s tasks in Perth was to hand over that first WA eCanter and we took the opportunity to ask him about the challenges facing the World’s biggest truck maker when it comes to the move to a zero-emission ‘truck-a-sphere’.

“I think the biggest challenge is for us to find the sweet spot, to be on the cutting edge of technology, but also to make it pay off on the bottom line. I think this is important, because you can already be in the electric truck market now with a broad range of trucks, but you may be out of business if you put too many eggs in that basket,” he explained.

“On the other hand, If you are not launching your first electric truck until 2030, then of course you’ll be too late and you may also be out of business.

“It’s tough to find the sweet spot about when you introduce zero emission and when customers and the markets are ready. I think this is the challenge for us,” Von Wallfeld said.

“It’s not only about the sweet spot of electric, it’s also about the sweet spots for a range of new technology and also about when ICE powered trucks are overtaken,” he said.

“Are you the first, are you the last? At what time can you make money, and of course building the infra-structure to enable electric and also hydrogen fuel cell. I think it’s an amazing challenge.

“You only have x amount of euros to invest, and over time you maybe invest some over here and some more over there, but then a new technology comes along and things change. Just imagine the price and

ONE OF VON WALLFELD’S TASKS IN PERTH WAS TO HAND OVER THAT FIRST WA eCANTER AND WE TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO ASK HIM ABOUT THE CHALLENGES FACING THE WORLD’S BIGGEST TRUCK MAKER WHEN IT COMES TO THE MOVE TO A ZERO-EMISSION ‘TRUCK-A-SPHERE’ performance of batteries and how much they can came down, whether that accelerates or not, or perhaps how quickly fuel cells are developed, any of those could change everything we are planning today,” he said.

“Of course we also have a bunch of new players, from the United States, some from China, some from Korea and so on, and they might come up with new batteries, with new fuel cell technology etc., so I think this is also very interesting.

“I would say nobody would have overtaken Daimler with diesel engines, with Euro seven or Euro six. technologies because we are so advanced and I don’t think a startup could match us, but you know, it’s a new game now, for instance you hear that a hair dryer company wants to build cars,” he said, referring to the mooted, but now shelved plans by consumer electric company, Dyson.

“Their mindset is, oh, we have electric technology and they think now’s the chance to get these established guys, and to beat them, but that means we need to be very attentive to new market trends,” he added.

Von Wallfeld says he can sense that amongst the big established OEM truck manufacturers, that they’re all feeling the weight of the necessary investment, even though they’ve probably cut back a lot of R&D on internal combustion to focus on zero emission.

Volvo’s decision to invest in the Cellcentric fuel cell joint venture with Daimler, was the best message for the future Von Wallfeld said he felt when he heard about it.

“It was the best message for me, because we have been doing fuel cell development for 20 or 30 years, and we have invested so much, so you wonder when does this pay off, and how far advanced are we really. Then you hear about the fuel cells from Hyundai and from Chinese makers, and then Volvo comes in and invests 650 plus million euros, along with also some hundreds of millions more on top, making it close to a billion euro investment , and it makes you realise it must be worth it,”

Von Wallfeld said with a smile.

Sitting in on the interview, Daimler Trucks Australia boss, Daniel Whitehead added an interesting side note about the headlong race to new tech.’

“I believe the really interesting thing is that even with all the talk about zero emission, that even if we’re hugely successful in the new technology in the next five years, 95 per cent of our sales will still be internal combustion engine vehicles,” Whitehead said.

“So there is this interesting dual path of doing both, advancing the five per cent forward takes so much of your attention, but it will still be that 95 per cent of internal combustion trucks that is actually going to pay the bills for most of that period of time,” Whitehead added.

Herr Von Wallfeld agrees that this is also a danger for a major player like Daimler, because it still has to make the money that is needed to invest in the new technology of the future.

“If you look to Tesla, if you look to Nikola, or if you look to the Chinese players that are supported very heavily by government, you know, it’s a danger that they might fight with different weapons,” Von Wallfeld said.

“However, I’m also confident that we should be able to have the advantage as a long-established manufacturer that continues to generate revenue, while startups have to draw down on capital their investors put in. and at some point, if the success doesn’t come quickly enough, there’s going to be a call on those investments,” he added.

“We always talk about disruption, because of course, the new alternative zero emission drive train vehicles, disrupt our business, but what we shouldn’t forget is we have many disruptions.

“Right now we have zero emission, we have connectivity, we have autonomous driving, I mean, if you miss one of these trends, you’re out of business, and there has never been so many disrupting factors than in the trucking industry today. In regard to autonomous technology, Von Wallfeld said it will take longer than many first thought and that zero emission will be much earlier.

“We are talking zero emission this decade, but I think autonomous, we are probably talking next decade, we’ll see,” he said.

“But I had a very interesting conversation with one of the biggest fleets in Europe, a fleet of 8000 units, and the operator told me he doesn’t care what we provide him, whether it’s electric, whether it’s diesel, whether it’s fuel cell, but simply said, it must work,” Von Wallfeld related.

“But that operator also told me the real change will come with autonomous because if you don’t have drivers you could cut out 30 per cent of your cost right away,” he said.

“Autonomous offers all sorts of opportunities for instance perhaps the truck needs to be serviced, it could be programmed to take itself to the dealership between 2am and 3am and then comes back. That same customer told me, zero emission is fine but it is not as big as autonomous and the effect that will have on the industry in terms of cost,” he added. Von Wallfeld told us what he believes makes the Daimler truck organisation special globally, is its breadth and multibrand approach.

“As I said earlier, when I come to Australia I talk to customers that have all three brands, and I’ve never had conversations like that in Europe. If you look at the breadth of the products we produce as a company, then we start from Euro Zero and go all the way to Euro Six, we have left hand drive, and right hand drive, we have CKD, SKD, CBU markets, meaning in many countries we manufacture, while in some countries we just put parts together, in other markets you might have only Euro Three legislation, but customers already drive Euro Five, and there’s a big need for electric and for zero emission,” Von Wallfeld said.

“In some of those lower spec markets the customers are calling the legislator and saying hey, why don’t you bring us to Euro Five? However in Europe, it’s completely different, because there the legislator tells us we have to be Euro Seven by 2027,” Von Wallfeld said.

“And that’s also a good point of discussion around Euro Seven, because some are asking whether we should introduce Euro Seven in Europe at all, because of course, there’s so much investment that could be put directly into fuel cell or into electric,” he added.

“The change in investments and thinking for that is massive, because for years, it’s always been the next development with ICE. You develop Euro six, but your investment in Euro two is still there and still functional.

“Now you’ve got much bigger demands on the dollars and the ideas of where you spend them, there’s just so many more things that haven’t been in existence over the past 100 years when it’s been about optimisation of a technology. That’s now changed incredibly with companies having to still sell internal combustion but to spend massively on forward technologies,” he added.

“It’s about finding that sweet spot, figuring out when do you cut off the technology in internal combustion, because on the other hand the established technology needs to bring in the money to enable the future investments, if you cut it off too early you may find yourself stranded,” he said.

“So it’s a constant compromise between how long we keep the diesels on, and what do we invest in diesel instead of putting the money into zero mission or whatever.”

“I hope that our legislators make a decision not to go into Euro Seven, and maybe raise the bar for electric, I think that would make so much more sense, because in many markets, they are driving Euro Three so they are polluting the environment in markets that represent three billion people, so 40 per cent of the world’s population.

“So if you jump from Euro Two or Three into Euro Five in those markets, you will probably have a much better and more significant improvement than if you jump from Euro Six to Euro Seven in Europe, which costs a lot of money and will not have as big an effect as moving to zero emission.

“I think if I’m not wrong, the CO2 benefit effect of going from Euro Six to Euro Seven is maybe two or three per cent, so not it’s not a lot,” Von Wallfeld added.

The German Daimler executive says that the restrictions that the global supply chain have imposed on the industry make things difficult, but that there are a lot of things to be positive about.

“We have been restricted in volume, and we have increased prices, so we have as many bad issues as you could possibly have, a lot of which could generate trouble with customers, and could cause problems with profitability, but it’s not playing out that way,” said Von Wallfeld.

“I’ve seen a lot of customers, who say, hey we really value that you are talking to us now and that they also know our difficulties. They don’t appreciate the price increases, but they understand, because they also read the newspaper, and at the same time, they also make a reasonable profit from there trucks, so they don’t blame us,” he said.

Daniel Whitehead says that from his perspective there is an understanding of the global headwinds among customers.

“You know in Australia, as a country that is a major exporter of iron ore, the customers know that if iron ore has been selling for $120 a tonne instead of $40 a tonne , that when it comes back as a truck it’s got to be more expensive,” said Whitehead.

With that Herr Von Wallfeld has to move on to another appointment before having his first steer of a classic Australian road train, a move that will surely enable him to understand the unique challenges Australian transport operators have to face. If Von Wallfeld’s obvious ability to listen and communicate with customers and dealers is anything to go by he will have taken a lot of knowledge about the Australian market back to Stuttgart with him.

SOME SUPERIOR FEELING AUSSIES MAY CONSIDER US TO BE AHEAD OF OUR KIWI COUSINS FROM ACROSS THE ‘DUTCH’. WE ARE AFTER ALL, THE BIG BROTHER WITH FIVE TIMES THE POPULATION AND SUPPOSEDLY FIVE TIMES THE SOPHISTICATION. HOWEVER THERE ARE MANY TIMES WHEN THE ALL BLACK WORSHIPPING CLAN FROM THE SHAKY ISLES MAKE US LOOK LIKE A BUNCH OF BACKWARD HICKS FROM OUT OF THE WEST, AS WE FOUND OUT WHEN WE TRAVELLED TO AUCKLAND TO SEE A GROUND BREAKING HYDROGEN FUEL CELL TRUCK TRIAL.

The Kiwis do have a habit of showing us Aussies up, and that notion certainly came into our thoughts when we flew across to Auckland and visited Hyundai New Zealand late in 2022. That’s right Hyundai, you know them, they’re the mob who make a range of increasingly impressive automobiles, that are about as far removed from those early 1990s $12999, drive away Excels as Earth is from Jupiter.

But it’s a car company right? Well it is here in OZ, apart from the fact that a very small number of Hyundai light, medium and heavy duty diesel trucks having been sold here for the past decade. But the reality is Hyundai trucks are a big deal in the Korean home market and others around the globe.

There has seemed to be a lack of will, resources and commitment from the local independent distributor for Hyundai trucks that has held back sales here in Australia, although again if you cast your eyes across the Tasman, you will see that Hyundai NZ, which is also an independent distributor, doesn’t seem to have too many issues pushing the brand’s commercial vehicles out to the market.

So there we were in Kiwiland to take a look at something so advanced, that we don’t even have them running in Australia yet, and probably won’t for some time.

The advanced concept we speak about is hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks. In fact Hyundai was the first manufacturer in the world to launch series production hydrogen powered trucks. The Hyundai zero emission heavy duty rigids have been running on roads in Switzerland since early 2020. With Hyundai delivering its first 47 hydrogen fuel cell Xcient Heavy Duty trucks to customers in Switzerland almost three years ago, you start to understand why one of the senior boffins at the Daimler-Volvo hydrogen joint venture, Cellcentric in Germany, when asked who its strongest opponents are likely to be in the FCEV sphere, immediately indicated that it would have to be a ‘large Korean manufacturer’. Remember that by the time Daimler and Volvo launch their first series production FCEVs around 2028, Hyundai will have had hydrogen trucks on the road for around eight years.

Hyundai chose Switzerland for its pilot program and step off point for its FCEV truck concepts, on the basis of the friendly regulations, environmentally conscious customers and reliable green electricity, generated by hydro electric plants, which account for 58 per cent of the Switzerland’s power mix.

As well as that, Switzerland’s local road tax is waived for no-carbon vehicles while fossil fuel vehicles pay around $AUD1200 (€800) for each tonne of CO2 they emit.

The Korean truck manufacturer says it plans to produce 2,000 FCEV Hydrogen trucks this year, for customers in Europe and China. At the same time it reaffirmed plans to take the truck eventually to the massive North American market, where ‘Hyundai’ is a very well-known and respected brand.

In New Zealand when we visited late last year, Hyundai NZ had two Xcient heavy duty rigid fuel cell trucks in its workshop being prepared for duty in a trial with NZ Post, the government owned mail service, just like our Australia Post.

Unlike our Kiwi counterparts across the ‘Dutch’, here in Australia, we consider ourselves advanced but on occasions we can be so bound up with arcane rules that impose barriers to safety and efficiency gains, that the more practical and pragmatic Kiwis avoid. For instance our truck width rules, which all but preclude the latest and most advanced trucks from Europe and North America from hitting our roads without major modifications and delays.

Speaking with Hyundai NZ’s head of Hydrogen and Eco commercial vehicles, Grant Doull, you realise at least one of the reasons the company has hydrogen trucks hitting the road there, while we have potentially years to wait.

“New Zealand regulators accept a variety of compliance regulations from around the world. So ADR, ECE, Japanese standard etc and what that means is that as long as you’ve got one of those global standards, it meets entry compliance for NZ,” said Doull.

Given the Hyundai hydrogen powered Xcient was already complied and on the road in Switzerland, it meant that it was compliant for New Zealand

“New Zealand is also already very, very committed to doing something about climate change over here, so that’s been a substantial driver,” said Grant Doull.

NZ is also signed up and committed to having 30 per cent of all medium and heavy duty vehicles zero emission by 2030. So they’re well underway, and coupled with the fact that on a good day NZ is generating around 85 per cent renewable energy. There’s also a lot of renewable projects coming on stream in the next two years, so it should push that figure closer to 90 per cent renewables.

“It also means NZ has a great base for using green hydrogen for fuel,” Doull added.

The Hiringa Hydrogen network is well underway, with the Taranaki based organisation, establishing a major hydrogen refuelling network in NZ. It has about $NZD50 million invested in establishing the network, with the first four stations set to come on line in about the next 12 months. The NZ Government is one of the key investors in that project In fact Hiringa has an ambitious program that aims to establish a green hydrogen production and refueling network across New Zealand focused on the heavy transport sector.

The first four stations are due to be operational later this year (2023), located in Hamilton, Palmerston North, Auckland and Tauranga, providing coverage for the nation’s key heavy freight routes in the North Island.

Another 20 stations across the North and South Islands are planned to be operational by 2026, while the network also provides an affordable and reliable source of hydrogen for multiple applications including aviation, shipping, construction and earthmoving equipment, materials handling, as well as stationary heat and power. All of that is going to provide a pretty substantial support for hydrogen fuel powered trucks and buses in NZ.

So that gets NZ going on its hydrogen journey in heavy transport, given there will be places to refuel clean hydrogen trucks, while at the high capacity stations, they will also be doing electrolysing on site. In other words producing the green hydrogen on site, and doing that means you avoid other things like transport costs, storage costs, which keeps the overall fuel cost lower.

Doull believes that a whole lot of things have lined up at once, with government support, rolling out of a fuel network, and a lot of major customers keen for zero emission solutions for their fleets. Unlike Australia, New Zealand has some very specific axle weight and GVM challenges which probably makes the added weight of the big bank of batteries needed for a heavy duty BEV powered trucks a challenge in NZ for heavier loads and longer routes.

So hydrogen is firming as an ideal technology for heavy duty transport in NZ , given all those reasons. Another reason is hydrogen refueling times are similar to those of a diesel. But above all the ability for a hydrogen truck to be used almost continuously for high productivity and not have to wait around for charging is a major plus.

BEV trucks will have a place in New Zealand and Hyundai has light duty BEV powered trucks coming to market there for operation in urban areas (As Hyundai Australia has also announced it will do), but in the heavy realm Hydrogen FCEV trucks make sense, and suit New Zealand’s heavy duty regs.

Despite the unique weight and axle loading rules in Kiwiland, it’s clear that Hydrogen FCEV is also going to be perfect for our long-distance truck needs in Australia

The two Xcient FCEVs sitting in the workshop at Hyundai NZ being prepared for trials were heavy rigids, configured in the uniquely Kiwi way, with a rigid 3 axle truck, boasting a 42 tonne GCM, allowing it to haul a two or three axle dog trailer. Those trucks will have around a 400km range with a 10 to 15 minute refuel at one of the hydrogen fuel stations, which should be positioned every two hours or so along the routes they will be used on. For the first trucks the routes are pretty much fixed and they will operate the same one, backwards and forwards to start with as part of a five truck commercial trial. What that means is, Hyundai NZ has committed to bringing five trucks in will sell or lease those trucks to end customers, and they have worked very closely with each of the end customers, to determine the right program for them.

The idea is to demonstrate the technology advantages, the refueling network, and gain performance data on New Zealand roads, then it Hyundai NZ will be able to scale up.

With New Zealand Post announced as the first company to trial the Hyundai Xcient FCEV, Hyundai NZ is also working with other specific customers around a solution that suits them. When there is more fuel and more variants available then the company will be able to extend the program. At the moment, the technology and cost scenario works quite well if you’ve got a relatively light payload (suited to 40t GCM), like NZ Post with its parcel freight combined with high mileage.

We are told the equation they have around total cost of operation, provided the trucks are doing fairly high mileage is reasonably strong. While Hyundai NZ would not be drawn on the cost of the hydrogen fuel and the other elements in the formula, the indication was that the road user charge exemption for the zero emission trucks in place in NZ until December 2025, does deliver considerable savings.

Trucks in NZ pay for the number of kilometers they use, unlike Australia where road tax is levied through fuel tax on every litre of diesel. The road user charge exemption has raised the ire of some diesel truck fleets who have been critical of the tax holiday the zero emission vehicles have been given.

But really, it’s the easiest mechanism that the government can use to incentivise the acceleration to zero emission power, and maybe you could also use a counter argument that diesel users are not paying any contribution towards the damage they do to the environment and the quality of the air.

However, at the moment, the road user charge exemption is an effective incentive, that certainly helps the economics with an initial take-up of FCEV like these Hyundais.

Some in NZ point out that the biggest problem is that the road user charge exemption needs to run longer, perhaps a six to eight year consideration to really help transition in the uptake of the new technologies. Without that, it’s going to be very difficult for it to make commercial sense. With a longer incentive hydrogen can achieve a closer to parity scenario.

Hyundai NZ is taking the Swiss spec Hydrogen Xcients, and while they are currently only available in left hand drive, the resourceful Kiwis are converting them to right hand drive in Auckland using their experience with selling diesel powered Xcients there and their resulting parts stock.

We are told the hydrogen Hyundais make for an extraordinary driving experience as well as have an impressive performance record in Switzerland where they have been in service for the past three years or so as we said earlier.

The 47 units that have been on the road in Switzerland for since 2020 have now logged more than five million combined kilometres,which is probably getting close to six million kilometres now,

The NZ national heavy vehicle fleet currently accounts for four per cent of the total Kiwi vehicle fleet, but produces 25 per cent of the transport emissions.

For every Hydrogen fuel cell powered Xcient put on the road in NZ, covering around 200,000 kilometres a year, it represents the equivalent C02 output of about 100 passenger cars, based on New Zealand stats, so it can make a big difference with every truck.

Whether you agree or disagree with climate change, it can’t be a bad thing to reduce the air pollution and smog in our big cities and to start using more renewable resources.

Clearly, while Hyundai is a Korean truck, the Xcient feels like a very European vehicle, particularly the Hydrogen fuel cell versions being put into action in Kiwiland, and if NZ and Australia is going to make it easier to take advantage of these new technology vehicles, then we have to have rules and regulations that make it easier to do it.

For instance with these fuel cell trucks, all the configurations are for a European market, so everything from the way they configure the axles, to the way they set the truck up, and the width is aligned to Euro rules, so for us to take advantage of these new technologies our regulations need to be more accepting of the product configurations coming out of Europe.

The belief in NZ is that by the middle of this decade there will be a solid program for FCEV products and that they’re going to be the default go to power technology by the end of the decade.

When you start thinking about truck builds, production scheduling and body builds, customers will be ordering trucks and signing up to these in 2024, for 2025/ 2026 delivery, so that time will rush up on us.

The Hyundai system is a fuel cell dominant system and in the Xcient uses two fuel cells with both supplying direct energy to the electric motor.

It uses its battery at times in the drive mode, as a booster, so it might be a hillclimb, or on initial acceleration, but the battery is effectively there to catch recuperated energy on hill descents and under brakes, and it’s for supplying spontaneous energy on demand.

The Hyundais undergoing prep work in Auckland are equipped with type four carbon kevlar tanks, which are polymer lined and meet very high safety standards.

The four tanks in this particular Xcient hold about 32 kilograms of hydrogen stored under pressure at 350 bar, enough to give the truck a range of 400km between refuels.

The battery is a 72 kilowatt hour 661 volt pack comprising three 24 kWh batteries, the same as used in Hyundai’s electric passenger cars, which reflects the economies of scale that could be achieved from manufacturers sharing components across their ranges, from the smallest cars to the largest trucks, with modularity being the key word. You can see that with Toyota and its Mirai fuel cell, which has been used in everything from small passenger cars to the buses servicing the Tokyo Olympics and even Paccar trucks at the Port of Long Beach in California.

The Xcient uses a 180kW fuel cell stack made up of two 90kW fuel cells, again underlining that modularity concept and the fact that the same fuel cells could be seen in Hyundai passenger cars, small commercial vans, light and medium duty trucks and even larger prime movers.

The fuel cell powers up the centrally mounted 350kW/2237Nm electric motor, which is coupled to a six-speed Alison automatic transmission.

The Hydrogen Xcient runs three separate and distinct cooling systems, with one for the fuel cells, another cooling system for the battery, and a third cooling system that runs the sub-assemblies. With heat and water being the only emissions from the production of electricity then cooling is vital in the efficient and reliable running of the truck.

Naturally, electricity runs all of the sub systems, with electric pumps pressurizing the hydraulic systems, as well as running power steering, the air conditioning system and any other components that may have been run off a belt drive on an internal combustion engine machine.

All in all you have to take your hat off to the Kiwis and in particular Hyundai NZ for such a pioneering effort, becoming only the third country behind Korea and Switzerland to put these zero emission trucks into operation.