Hydrogen truck roadshow calls in at the Euref campus in Berlin
H2 Green Power & Logistics GmbH has come to Berlin on its roadshow with the Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell truck, which is calling in at eleven cities in seven German states. After making stops in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the truck arrived on Tuesday (7 December) at the Euref Campus, a living laboratory for the mobility transition, which is unique in Europe.
During the roadshow, Dr Ludger Hellenthal, Managing Partner of H2 GreenPowerLog, stopped by at his first fleet customer with the Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell show truck. “Despite Corona, we have already had the opportunity to meet almost 300 companies at the stops in just a few days, including both decision-makers and practitioners,” says Hellenthal. The company is active in the market with a complete ecosystem for green hydrogen in commercial vehicle mobility, which will later be extended to include stationary large-scale customers. Now, the next stage of the energy transition is hitting the streets. H2 GreenPowerLog will make H2 trucks from Hyundai available for zero-emission commercial vehicle logistics via a pay-per-use model or as part of a purchasing pool, as well as providing the green hydrogen.
A video message from Hyundai Senior Vice President Global Sales, Mark Freymueller, was sent from Seoul to Berlin. After a successful launch in 2020 in Switzerland, Beat Hirschi, CEO of Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility AG, announced the market launch of the H2 Hyundai trucks in Germany, too. Hirschi and his Board of Directors Chairman, Rolf Huber, have set ambitious volume targets for Germany. They stress that this must be in line with the development of the wider green hydrogen economy and filling station infrastructure. “We look forward to partnering with H2 Green Power & Logistics and their distribution brand H2 Delivery,” they said.
Nikolas Iwan, Managing Director of H2 Mobility Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, explains: “We are currently adding the 350-bar option to our public hydrogen filling station network as is required, in order to also supply trucks such as the Hyundai Xcient with hydrogen, including the filling station at the Magdeburg Autohof, which opened in 2018 in cooperation with H2 GreenPowerLog. Commissioning is scheduled for the third quarter of 2022 in time for the arrival of the first Hyundai Xcient trucks from South Korea.”
Green hydrogen by road, rail, ship and pipeline
H2 GreenPowerLog distributes green hydrogen by road, rail, pipeline and inland waterway via its distribution subsidiary H2 Delivery quattromodal, using in-house green electricity generated with photovoltaics, wind power and biomass for H2 electrolysis. Customers are companies from wholesale and retail, industry and commerce, logistics and refineries in the procurement and use of green hydrogen. In 2021, the company was also awarded the contract for the supply of green hydrogen in the first public tender by the TU Berlin/Berliner Hafen & Lagergesellschaft for the “Elektra” project. The partner for the supply of green hydrogen here is Enertrag AG. The hydrogen truck visited their hydrogen centre, including the first hydrogen filling station in Prenzlau, after a stop at the Euref campus and a photo shoot at Berlin’s Tempelhof airfield.
During the roadshow stop in Berlin, much applause and encouragement was given for the path of green hydrogen. Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff, Managing Director and spokesperson for NOW GmbH, said: “Heavy goods traffic on the roads plays a major role in climate protection since it currently causes around one third of the carbon emissions in the transport sector. Especially for long-distance transport, the hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck is a very promising approach in terms of TCO, payload and flexibility.” Reinhard Müller, CEO of Euref AG, acknowledged the long-standing mutual cooperation with Ludger Hellenthal in Berlin and welcomed H2 GreenPowerLog as a future user of the Euref campus in Düsseldorf, which is currently under construction.
At the closing of the hydrogen truck presentation, Ludger Hellenthal conducted an “experiment” in front of the audience, and drank a glass of pure water, which the H2 truck’s fuel cell had produced instead of conventional exhaust.