New project to develop battery and hydrogen powertrains

A new project will develop battery and hydrogen fuel cell powertrains for zero-emission commercial vehicles.

The zero-emission powertrain sub-systems will be available separately or as fully integrated powertrains for both battery EVs and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The project is led by Arcola Energy who will continue the development of its hydrogen and fuel cell powertrain integration capabilities with systems developed for both buses and trucks.

The full system will be integrated into a heavy goods vehicle as a unique zero-emission powertrain demonstrator.

Clean tech firm AVID and global power management company Eaton will collaborate to pair AVID’s EVO-brand electric motor with Eaton’s four-speed medium-duty electrified vehicle transmission to create the motor drive.

The collaboration is supported and partly funded by the UK government’s Advanced Propulsion Centre, which aims to develop leading EV infrastructure for UK businesses.

(Left to right) Ryan Maughan, managing director at AVID Technology Group with Ben Todd, CEO of Arcola Energy and Andrew Hodgson, non-exec chairman at AVID Technology Group.

Ben Todd, CEO at Arcola Energy, said ‘This project brings together a powerful combination of hydrogen, fuel cell, battery, electric machine and drivetrain capabilities from recognised leaders in their respective fields.

‘The outcome will be a compelling offer to vehicle manufacturers — fast, low-risk, high-quality, cost-effective approaches to electrifying their fleets, whatever their fuelling preference — plugin, hybrid or hydrogen.

In May, Arcola announced they have joined forces with train manufacturer Vivarail to develop a hydrogen-powered train, which could begin testing later this year.

The concept train will be used to demonstrate the system capability and test performance of the technology and it’s hoped the final hydrogen trains will consist of four carriages, with two battery driving motor cars and two intermediate cars housing the fuel cell and tanks.

Arcola also recently announced they will build a facility to develop hydrogen and fuel cell technology for buses near Liverpool.