MAN starts road testing fuel cell trucks in southern Germany

MAN Truck & Bus has moved its hydrogen fuel cell truck development programme into real-world logistics operations. Three fuel cell trucks have been handed over to German logistics company LoadFox and will now operate on regular routes across southern Germany for a period of three months.

The trials are being carried out as part of MAN’s Bayernflotte research project and are intended to gather operational data on the efficiency, reliability and economic viability of hydrogen-powered trucks in heavy distribution and long-haul applications.

MAN fuel cell trucks target up to 500 km of range

According to the information released by TRATON, the three trucks combine a hydrogen fuel cell system, high-voltage batteries and an electric driveline. They have been designed to provide a range of approximately 450 to 500 kilometres.

The Bayernflotte programme will therefore allow the technology to be assessed under actual logistics conditions rather than solely through development testing. Data collected during the three-month operation will subsequently be used for the further development of hydrogen technologies within the TRATON Group and could contribute to future vehicle generations.

No further technical specifications for the trucks — including fuel cell output, battery capacity or onboard hydrogen storage — were provided in the announcement.

Hydrogen as a complement to battery-electric trucks

The project does not signal a change in TRATON’s broader electrification strategy. The group continues to identify battery-electric vehicles as the dominant technology for road freight transport, while considering hydrogen as a potential complementary solution for specific applications.

Among the use cases mentioned by TRATON are particularly long-distance operations and regions where the availability of charging infrastructure could make battery-electric operation more difficult.

Alongside fuel cell technology, MAN is also developing hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines. The manufacturer has already presented the MAN hTGX, powered by an H45 hydrogen combustion engine and intended primarily for special applications where battery-electric operation may be difficult to implement.

The two projects therefore explore different ways of using hydrogen in heavy-duty transport: through a fuel cell supplying an electric driveline in the Bayernflotte trucks, and through direct hydrogen combustion in the hTGX.

The Bayernflotte trials should now provide MAN and the wider TRATON Group with real-world data to assess where fuel cell technology could complement battery-electric trucks, based not only on technical performance but also on the economics of everyday transport operations.2