Analysis of the design space for battery and fuel cell powered electric trucks

A diverse set of solutions will likely be needed to decarbonize the commercial truck sector in US. Battery powered vehicles definitely has a predominant role in this, but there are several areas where fuel cell trucks are more advantageous for the consumer. This study examines several prominent medium and heavy duty applications, designed for different driving range requirements to identify the design space where battery and fuel cell trucks are attractive. The impact of purchase price, fuel cost, vehicle usage are also considered in this analysis. Since future costs cannot be accurately predicted, this study includes parametric sweeps with certain high and low values to examine the uncertainty of the observations. This work examines the top 10 truck classes based on vehicle population, fuel usage and driving distances. It also considers some of the bus applications such as coach, transit and school buses. The vehicle usage information taken from VIUS as well as inputs from the 21CTP Roadmap on the distance driven by each of these application guide the simplified cost of ownership calculation for this work. A 2030 scenario where both batteries and FC systems become cheaper and more efficient as envisioned by US Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) and Hydrogen and Fuel cell Technologies Office (HFTO) is assumed for this study. This study shows that even for smaller class vehicles, where battery electric vehicles are expected to be the attractive choice, the results are not quite straight forward. Based on the vehicle design, usage and external operating conditions, there are scenarios where fuel cell based powertrains are necessary to meet the consumer needs. In heavier vehicles with long range operational requirements, fuel cell powered truck are already seen as the leading contender to diesel.