IMC, the largest company in the United States that transports containers from ports to warehouses, has ordered 50 Nikola hydrogen trucks for transportation in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
For two years, the company has been using electric vehicles, but such tests have yielded disappointing results, Hydrogen Insight reports.
It is noted that since 2022, IMC has used six Volvo electric trucks and installed charging points capable of servicing a fleet of 30 vehicles. However, it turned out that they needed to be improved.
"The main problem with battery [electric vehicles] is that you can only get four to six hours of performance out of a truck over a 12- to 14-hour period if they're under load," said CEO Joel Henry.
He explained that it is not profitable for trucking companies, because diesel tractors can be operated approximately 20-24 hours a day.
IMC Pacific president Jim Gillis added that the 300-mile (483 km) port-to-warehouse trips that the company regularly makes are "out of reach for these battery electric vehicles."
According to California's new rules, all new trucks registered on January 1 must have zero emissions. This is necessary in order to phase out trucks running on fossil fuels by 2035.
The material added that the cost of the new hydrogen trucks reaches more than $22 million, that is, more than $440,000 per truck.
"On the hydrogen side, the infrastructure is not there and we don't expect it for several years," Henry said. "In order to get these trucks going, we need to contract with a hydrogen fuel supplier to deliver hydrogen in tanks to our facilities."
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the industrial coalition coordinated by the Hy24 hydrogen fund issued a report calling on the European Commission and member states to create a network of large-scale hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) by 2027.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the world's first hydrogen quarry truck First Mode debuted at the Mogalakwena mine in South Africa of the Anglo American company.
