Volvo’s hydrogen-powered trucks are currently undergoing on-road trials in northern Sweden’s harsh cold climate, ahead of a planned commercial launch by 2030.
The trials aim to verify the vehicle’s hydrogen combustion engine, which is essentially a modified internal combustion engine designed to run on green hydrogen instead of diesel.
The engine features high pressure direct injection (HPDI) technology, developed by Cespira, a joint venture between Volvo Group and Westport Fuel Systems. The technology allows engines to burn renewable fuels such as hydrogen or bio-methane while maintaining the power and performance of traditional diesel engines.
The HPDI fuel system consists of a fully integrated “tank-to-injector” solution. It works by injecting a small amount of ignition fuel into the cylinder to initiate compression ignition, after which hydrogen is injected. The CO2 emissions from the process are near zero as the ignition fuel used is renewable hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), although...