Project ICEBreaker, delivered by a consortium of leading British engineering companies, unveiled a fully-configured hydrogen fuel cell HGV truck at Cenex Expo 2024.It answers many of the key design and development questions faced by the automotive industry as it prepares the next generation of light and heavy-duty commercial vehicles to meet new zero-emissions regulations from the EU that start to take effect in 2030.
The project has brought together the hydrogen engineering expertise of Viritech, AIRTO member HORIBA MIRA, and Intelligent Energy, with funding from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK’s Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator competition. Jointly they have developed a drivetrain solution that answers the key hydrogen engineering challenges in the creation of a fuel cell electric vehicle truck.
Importantly, ICEBreaker’s drivetrain architecture provides a pathway for all categories of goods vehicles from light vans to HGVs to make the transition to zero emissions with solutions that retrofit or integrate with existing vehicle form factors, while also answering key operator requirements such as maintaining payload.
