Truck OEM Cooperation for Future Commercial Vehicles
This article is a summary of a ClubHouse discussion organised on April 28th 2021. List of the Speakers at the end…
➡️ Even if the Truck Industry has not been facing the exact same issue as the Automotive, Diesel gets a very bad image obliging OEMs to develop other low-carbon PowerTrains. The technological cost to fulfil future pollutant and CO2 targets (Euro VII) makes Electrification a more and more attractive solution for the OEMs.
➡️ Currently, both “Fuel Cell” and “Fully Electric” PowerTrain Technologies are under development at Truck Manufacturers (sometimes only 1 techno, sometimes both). Most projections now agree that FCEV could find a TCO-advantage only for long-haul and high payload, while smaller commercial vehicles or last-km delivery will be battery-vehicle preferentially. It seems that - for long haul - Fuel Cell Trucks are closer to be released to the general public than Full Electric Commercial Vehicles.
➡️ A full new Eco-system, including vehicles, of course, but also the distribution infrastructure (high power density charger or Hydrogen), the business models, the energy-supplier key players…. needs to be rapidly developed. Both FCEV and BEV suffer from the same issue: the lack of distribution infrastructure, either Hydrogen and/or Fast Chargers able to rapidly recharge the energy reservoir of a truck. The success of transport decarbonisation relies on the development of such infrastructures which needs collaboration and cooperation between not only the OEMs but also governments and local authorities. It is important that the Truck Industry learns from the mistakes made by Automotive. For example, charging plugs, infrastructure, way to pay, safety and charger standards should quickly be agreed to help adopting cleaner technologies.
➡️ Great attention must be put on developing Green energy would it be for Hydrogen or for the electricity as all vehicle demonstrators claim big gains through Green electricity or Hydrogen, while today’s Electricity and Hydrogen are by far derived from coal and fossil Fuels.
➡️ For many years, Truck Manufacturers have used vertical integration = they wanted to develop and to control most of the powertrain in-house with their specific unique approaches and solutions. We now see more “horizontal integration” with a lot of developments made with partners, Engine Labs and suppliers. The “consolidated-groups” (such as Scania + MAN within the Volkswagen group, for example, or large Chinese OEMs) maximise collaboration between the different brands. Those collaborations are necessary because the expected volume for these new Technologies are relatively small at the start, so that the high cost of development must be mutualised.
➡️ Suppliers are key to help developing these technologies. Traditional Tier One Suppliers are not always up-to-date in e-mobility (Battery but also ADAS, etc.), so we see a lot of new (start-up) players coming reshuffling the game. When they are able to propose innovative solutions (rather thanks to in-house developments or by purchasing small start-ups), traditional suppliers need to be better at promoting their products. The use of Social Media for B2B Marketing is key (exhibitions and shows not existing due to the COVID-crisis). Business-relationship (industry liaison / key account) needs to be carefully reworked (maybe through “facilitators” or “influencers”).
➡️ Chinese OEMs are progressing very quickly in those Truck New Technologies, not only in Batteries but also on Fuel Cells. While in the past, China was often relying on reverse Engineering, we clearly see today their leadership in the development of new mobility not only for passenger cars but also for trucks. A large part of their technological advance is due to the pressure of the government based on 3 reasons: (1) decarbonisation; (2) economy; (3) worldwide Chinese leadership. It is important to notice the number of demonstrator projects for truck Fuel Cells currently running in China. China is adopting the same approach as for passenger cars by multiplying demonstrator projects before duplicating their success to cover the country and impose the Technology.
➡️ Start-up and New “OEM” Players (Tesla Semi Trailer, for example) are quickly gaining the favour of the public, but they are also developing very innovative technology at a pace difficult to maintain for Truck OEM (obliging OEMs to partnership).
Thanks to the Speakers:
Romain Nicolas, Business Developer, SimCenter AMESim for Truck, Bus, Off-Highway and Marine Applications
Felipe Rodriguez, Heavy Duty Program Lead, ICCT (The International Council on Clean Transportation)
Nils-Gunnar Vagstedt, Senior Expert Electromobility, Research & Innovation, Scania
