The Volvo Group is buying into Daimler’s fuel cell technology for heavy trucks to the tune of $650 million so as to push for a carbon-neutral shipping network. Daimler is the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Mitsubishi Fuso, and Torc robotics (among others). As such, it is one of the largest players in the shipping space anywhere.
It’s no wonder, then, that Vo
lvo would seek Daimler out as a partner while it takes steps to reduce its carbon footprint even further.
For its part, Daimler will benefit from Volvo’s advances in vehicle autonomy and connectivity as it pushes towards what it calls “the next evolutionary step” of emission-free, automated, and connected driving.
A true CO2-neutral transport can be accomplished through electric drive trains with energy coming either from batteries or by converting hydrogen on board into electricity.
For trucks to cope with heavy loads and long distances, fuel cells are one important answer and a technology where Daimler has built up significant expertise through its Mercedes-Benz fuel cell unit over the last two decades.
The $650 million from Volvo will go towards the creation joint venture (JV) that will be half owned by Daimler Trucks and half owned by Volvo Trucks. The intention is to develop, produce and commercialize fuel cell systems for heavy-duty vehicle applications and other use cases.
Daimler will consolidate all its current fuel cell activities in the joint venture. Part of this bundling of activities is the allocation of the operations of “Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cell GmbH”, which has longstanding experience in the development of fuel cell and hydrogen storage systems for various vehicle applications, to Daimler Truck AG.
Reference- Volvo PR, TechCrunch, Forbes, Clean Technica