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What Alternative Power Will Be Like

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We hear a lot about the development of zero emission trucks and the trucking industry reducing its carbon emissions, but we have no idea what alternative power will be like in the metal, what it sounds and smells like.

Attendees at the Alternative Clean Transportation Expo in California recently actually got to see a selection of the alternatives, powered by batteries and hydrogen fuel cells as part of a ride and drive program outside the main exhibition hall. 

Here are a selection of videos giving us some idea of what this future truck fleet will feel like when it finally arrives and becomes a much bigger part of our industry. 

In the first video (above) we see the Hyundai fuel cell powered prime mover, with its large container of hydrogen fuel sitting behind the cabin. This follows a fully electric Freightliner eCascadia, looking much more like a normal truck, but with a considerably shorter range. The sound as they pull away is the sound of the future.

Both Hyundai and Daimler are forging ahead with their different zero emission projects. Hyundai are moving fast in the hydrogen powered fuel cell space with a number of trucks on the road in Europe and Korea, while Daimler are pushing hard with Mercedes Benz and Freightliner electric models coming close to full production.

This next video shows the Hyliion product which can be fitted into any chassis. It utilises a mix and match approach with customers offered trucks power by a zero emission biogas engine, or electric trucks with a biogas generator providing power, or a straight battery electric vehicle.

The company clearly know how to make an exciting video, but some of the data sheets on the product are a little vague.

Here is another of the start-ups in the fuel cell powered stakes, Nikola. After doing a deal with Iveco to enable the company to use the S-Way model platform for its new models, the company has demonstrated on both sides of the Atlantic, but its future still remains uncertain.

The fact of the matter is, we really have no idea what the future will bring. Government incentives would speed up the uptake of alt-power and the fact that the rest of the world is going down the zero emission route quite quickly, means we will have no choice but to adopt the new technology at some point.

what alternative power will be like

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