Hyzon Motors: New fuel cell commercial vehicle maker

The Horizon Fuel Cell Group has launched Hyzon Motors, a hydrogen vehicle company focused on heavy-duty FCEVs and specifically fuel cell stacks exceeding 100kW. Hyzon’s vehicle line due to launch this year is to include trucks from 15-40 tonnes.

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Next year, the company based in New York wants to add other light commercial vehicles and types on the van platform. This includes road-trains with a gross weight of up to 140 tonnes set for commercialisation in 2021 in Australia.

Hyzon claims to be the first US manufacturer to specialise in PEM fuel cell modules with more than 100 kW. The technology comes from Horizon Fuel Cell, that founded Hyzon as its new commercial vehicle subsidiary. George Gu, CEO of Hyzon Motors, doubles as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Horizon Fuel Cell. He said: “We have seen incredible growth in Asia in recent years at Horizon, and now with the experience gained from hundreds of trucks in commercial service, we aim to bring our technology to the roads of the world.” Gu also expressed the hope that their technology will help the world decarbonise transport “much faster than people currently believe is possible”.

Works to produce the fuel cell commercial vehicles will start in the US facility by mid-2020. The Hyzon FCEVs with Horizon fuel cells are to exhibit “a significant advantage in whole-of-life cost” that will reach parity with diesel vehicles, according to Craig Knight, CEO of Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies. The executive added, they would combine the offer “with the imminent availability of very competitive large-scale green hydrogen in a number of countries”. The announcement failed to go into more detail here other than saying a “number of significant agreements have been signed, with most supported by green hydrogen supply projects”.

The 40-tonne model set for launch this November will have a drive power of 150 kW. In later 80-tonne models, possibly the road train, the output is to be 370 kW. According to the company’s homepage, buyers may configure the hydrogen tanks with options ranging from 48 kilograms for the standard range of up to 500 kilometres up to 192 kilograms for over 2,000 kilometres.

In terms of marketing, Hyzon Motors is essentially aiming for all major markets and says it has received interest from Oceania, North and South America, Africa, to Europe and Asia,

To start with, the fuel cell specialist is planning deployment of over 2,000 heavy vehicles with customers in the first three years. To that end, Hyzon aims to equip the USA facility with enough capacity and the potential to increase to 10,000 units of fuel cell commercial vehicles based on demand.

Update 16 April 2020: Hyzon Motors says it has received a Memorandum of Understanding order for 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell buses from an unnamed client. The target is to deliver the first 50 units in about 12 months after the official signing of the contract.

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