VFrom monoculture to multicultural togetherness. This is how the drive world of the future could develop, as outlined at this year’s Vienna Motor Symposium at the end of April. Andreas Gorbach, chief technician at Daimler Trucks, pointed out that in commercial vehicles there was previously only one drive principle that provided propulsion for everything from street sweepers to 100-ton mining vehicles: the diesel engine. In price-sensitive markets, where every tenth of a cent counts, the compression-ignition engine is still often the most economical drive. However, Gorbach expects that to change soon.
Battery-electric drives would quickly establish themselves in light commercial vehicles weighing up to 7.5 tons. “In this segment we are not investing any further in diesel,” says the manager. For heavy-duty commercial vehicles, however, it is the application that decides which drive is suitable. A semi-trailer truck that travels 1000 kilometers a day in long-distance traffic will be the cheapest to drive with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell in 2030. In distribution traffic with daily distances of 300 kilometers, on the other hand, the battery always wins. It would look different again for a heavy construction site vehicle with two driven axles. This is mainly operated under full load. “Under these circumstances, a hydrogen combustion engine offers a very high level of efficiency,” says Gorbach.