31.05.2024
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
While the first filling stations for fuel cell cars have already had to close, new filling stations for fuel cell trucks are being built across Germany: a bet on the future.
49 percent of Germans expect fuel cells to prevail in the car drive sector in the long term. This was the result of a Civey survey commissioned by Der Spiegel in spring 2023. So far, however, there are hardly any fuel cell cars on German roads. Of around 61 million vehicles registered in Germany on January 1, 2024, just 2,410 were powered by fuel cells.
One reason for this is that there are currently only two car models on the German market that run on hydrogen: the Hyundai Nexo and Toyota Mirai. Another reason could be the availability of hydrogen filling stations. The question of whether the expansion of infrastructure is a prerequisite for or a consequence of the establishment of fuel cell vehicles is similar to the chicken and egg problem.
However, Germany has already been relying on the egg for around ten years. The development of a hydrogen filling station infrastructure is being funded to the tune of billions. The company H2 Mobility now operates filling stations for fuel cell vehicles at around 80 locations, 54 of which are for cars and 26 of which are combined facilities where both cars and trucks can refuel. Despite all the filling stations, the fuel cell car has not yet been able to establish itself.
As a result, the first locations are already closing again, such as the facility built in Koblenz in 2017 on April 1, 2024. Latest usage figures there: Ten regularly refueling cars. The hydrogen filling station in Wuppertal also closed on April 1. The site in Derching, not far from Augsburg, is due to go offline on May 31. Other locations are being put to the test - especially those that cannot be converted for use by trucks.
New, larger, more powerful locations are being built
H2 Mobility is now focusing on heavy goods vehicles. At the BASF site in Frankenthal, Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, a new plant with a daily capacity of up to 800 kilograms of hydrogen is currently being built. According to the supplier, this is enough to refuel more than 30 trucks or buses. By 2027, H2 Mobility plans to double this capacity.
According to Martin Jüngel, Managing Director and CFO of H2 Mobility Germany: "Demand for heavy goods transport will also increase significantly in this region. That's why we are building new locations like the one in Frankenthal many times larger than a few years ago. In future, up to three vehicles will be able to refuel here at the same time, including buses and trucks at 350 bar and light commercial vehicles and cars at 700 bar."
Subsidies are also being used to expand this infrastructure, with the Federal Ministry of Transport providing 1.3 million euros in the case of Frankenthal. However, there is a growing number of voices that are increasingly critical of these investments - because just as in the passenger car segment, the expansion of the infrastructure for heavy commercial vehicles is a bet on the future.
With an uncertain outcome: while it was long considered a foregone conclusion that battery electric drives would not be able to establish themselves in heavy goods transport - the batteries are too heavy, the range too short, the charging times too long - suppliers in this field have recently been outdoing each other with ever new innovations.
In the current issue of Energie & Management, which will be published on June 1, you can read where further pitfalls could lurk and how representatives from science, business and politics are positioning themselves.
Author: Katia Meyer-Tien
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