Bosch Sees Two Paths Forward for On-Road Hydrogen Trucks

Hydrogen ICE and fuel cells both have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the load and the distance.

January 3, 2025

Jeremy Korzeniewski

Bosch’s hydrogen injector for direct injection does not require any additional lubrication. (Bosch)

The incoming Republican White House administration is expected to significantly alter regulations that impact the country’s transportation sector. Emissions regulations may change, but they won’t be going away entirely. While the passenger car market is expected to shift from full electrification toward hybrid powertrains, Bosch sees potential for hydrogen to make inroads in the on-road truck segment. In fact, there are multiple hydrogen paths for the trucking industry to pursue.

Peter Tadros, Bosch North America’s president for powertrain solutions. (Bosch)

“Hydrogen may not be relevant in light-duty vehicles, but on long-haul trucks, this becomes a more viable option down the road,” Peter Tadros, Bosch North America’s president for powertrain solutions, told SAE Media in an interview. “It’s a multi-lane road here.”

“Fuel cell products for long-haul trucks have been in production now for a little over a year. All these are part of the portfolio for future products, old and new, and we keep working on them,” Tadros said. While hydrogen fuel cells are a maturing technology, internal combustion engines can also be designed to run cleanly on the fuel.

“Hydrogen internal combustion engines, I think, have a lot of potential, and we have a lot of products for this area because they use 90% of the same infrastructure that we have today from the engine side of things,” Tadros said.

It’s not fully clear which hydrogen technology will ultimately hold the most promise for future production. “The question of whether hydrogen ICE or a hydrogen fuel cell – they have advantages and disadvantages on either side, depending on the load you’re carrying and the distance you’re going,” Tadros explained. Either way, there’s a strong argument to be made that hydrogen is an ideal fuel for future on-road trucks.

China will most likely be the leading market for mobile fuel cells at first, according to Bosch, with major growth in Europe and North America coming after 2030. (Bosch)

“There is a use case for it where electrification will not serve well, which is longer range, fast refueling, where segments of the market depend on generating their income from getting from point A to point B, and that distance is large, and they need to haul a lot of weight,” Tadros said. “Really it’s not a niche, it’s a big area of the market.”

As promising as it may seem as a fuel source, however, work will be needed to make a hydrogen-fueled future a reality.

“The challenges are the same for those two technologies,” Tadros said. “One, of course, is the availability of hydrogen. This is really the biggest challenge we see now with all the hydrogen hubs that are being introduced in different parts of the country.”

As for hydrogen combustion, injectors are a source of development. “This presents some challenges because you have to do billions of cycles without the lubricants of gas, but with hydrogen,” Tadros said. “We’re overcoming that, so this is also a future area for us for hydrogen ICE.”

One thing is for certain: It’s going to take time. “It may take a little longer than the battery-electric vehicle introduction. We still see a lot of potential for hydrogen in the region, once we are able to really get our infrastructure solved, or at least eased a bit to give comfort for fleet operators that it’s a solution that they can use.”