US logistics firm opts for hydrogen trucks after testing and rejecting battery electric fleet

[Caribbeans]

US logistics firm opts for hydrogen trucks after testing and rejecting battery electric fleet

16 January 2024 | Polly Martin

IMC, the largest company in the US hauling containers from ports to warehouses, has ordered 50 Nikola fuel-cell trucks for its operations in California, Arizona and Nevada, after disappointing results from two years of testing battery-electric vehicles.

The firm had purchased six Class 8 battery-electric trucks from Volvo in September 2022, as well as installing charge points capable of serving a fleet of 30, but found them wanting.

“The main challenge with battery [electric vehicles] is that you can only get four to six hours of productivity out of the truck in a 12-to-14-hour period if they are under load,” the marine drayage firm’s CEO Joel Henry told Memphis daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal.

“The problem is that it isn’t sustainable for trucking companies, which can operate diesel tractors for about 20 to 24 hours a day,” he added...more
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/us-logistics-firm-opts-for-hydrogen-trucks-after-testing-and-rejecting-battery-electric-fleet/2-1-1584047

[Think. Again.]

1. Excellent news...

...I've mentioned before that I believe we should probably just start building out a longterm hydrogen transportation economy rather than temporarily side-tracking through a battery-based transportation economy, since batteries will be more problematic in the long run due to finite resources like Lithium.

But at this point, anything we do to get out from under fossil fuels as quickly as possible is a step in the right direction.

[brush]

2. Well, that's it for E-trucks. They can't compete with diesel yet because low usage rate in a 24hr period.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Here's why a large Memphis-area firm is making a major investment in hydrogen trucks

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/2024/01/10/hydrogen-trucks-electric-vehicles-imc-companies-tennessee-california/71912722007/

Here's why a large Memphis-area firm is making a major investment in hydrogen trucks
Corey Davis
Memphis Commercial Appeal

The Memphis area's largest intermodal logistics firm plans to add 50 hydrogen trucks to its fleet this year as it moves away from electric trucks.

Collierville-based IMC is slated to receive 20 Nikola hydrogen tractors in the first quarter of 2024, while 30 additional hydrogen tractors are slated to be delivered to the firm later this year.

…

IMC CEO Joel Henry told The Commercial Appeal that the company will have hydrogen tractors in California, while also operating them in Nevada and Arizona for its West Coast port operations. IMC has 735 total trucks in its fleet, which includes the order of the hydrogen trucks, according to Henry.

…

"On the hydrogen side, there is no infrastructure and we don't anticipate any for multiple years," Henry said. "There are no public fueling stations, nor can you bring or build permanent hydrogen fueling at our facilities. To power these trucks, we are having to contract with a hydrogen fuel supplier to deliver tanker loads of hydrogen to our facilities."

…

[Caribbeans]

4. "On the hydrogen side, there is no infrastructure and we don't anticipate any for multiple years,"

Germany can do it.

https://h2.live/en/

Belgium just added 5 stations.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. I'm a fan of hydrogen

But, I’m a fan of “balanced coverage.”

In the case of IMC, they believe the advantages of hydrogen at this point outweigh the disadvantages, however, let’s not pretend that means the disadvantages aren’t real.

[NNadir]

6. The title should read "US Logistics Firm Invests in Wasting Energy and Driving Climate Change."

Despite the push of fossil fuel salespeople here and elsewhere to rebrand fossil fuels as hydrogen, the nature of this filthy scheme is unambiguous.

A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

Hydrogen is yet another of the shell games and dishonest policies, along with other bullshit like carbon sequestration, to sell fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, there is a huge, and very stupid, public belief that this very dirty scam involving exergy destruction of dangerous fossil fuels is clean. It is the opposite of clean, much like the other fossil fuel industry scam, sequestration.