A Tyrolean start-up is laying the foundation for the sustainable decarbonization of road transport in Austria: JuVe AutoMotion GmbH, based in Innsbruck, operates in the areas of trading, operation and maintenance of hydrogen-powered fuel cell commercial vehicles.
For the Tyrolean food retailer MPREIS, JuVe will put the first fuel cell trucks into operation in summer 2022 – the first of their kind in Austria. In the future, the company, which was founded in 2021, will serve the entire Austrian market as a full-service provider. By 2024, Hyzon Motors will deliver a total of 70 zero-emission vehicles to JuVe AutoMotion, which is responsible for exclusive sales in Austria.
In order to achieve the climate goals, the carbon footprint of freight transport must also improve. According to the VCÖ, road freight transport caused eleven percent of Austria’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 with more than eight million tons, which corresponds to a third of the emissions from traffic. “Although the technologies are already mature, there are currently only a few fuel cell trucks on Europe’s roads. In Austria, not a single one of these zero-emission vehicles is used to transport goods. That will change in the next few months,” say Ewald Perwög and Thomas Thaler , Managing Directors of JuVe AutoMotion GmbH.
Putting the first three hydrogen-powered fuel cell trucks in Austria on the road for the Tyrolean food retailer MPREIS in late summer: The managing directors of JuVe AutoMotion GmbH Thomas Thaler (left) and Ewald Perwög,
Hydrogen trucks as a growth market
In the near future, in addition to battery-electric heavy vehicles, fuel cell trucks (so-called “Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles”, FCEV for short) will also play a role when it comes to the decarbonization of heavy goods transport on the road. Depending on the study on the hydrogen market development, a market share of 25 to 50% for directly CO2-free drive systems is assumed in the drive mix 2030, according to Thomas Thaler. Until then, however, some groundwork is still necessary: ”There are currently only a few high-performance refueling systems in Europe, mostly in connection with FCEV bus refueling.” But fuel for FCEV trucks is still in short supply: The Electrolysis capacity across Europe is currently less than 1GW.
“In order to decarbonize freight transport on the road, not only deliverable fuel cell trucks are required. Vehicles need special maintenance, gas stations are needed to fill them up, and sufficient fuel – i.e. hydrogen – is needed to fill them up. JuVe AutoMotion GmbH acts at this interface. A broad – and above all early – introduction of fuel cell commercial vehicles can only succeed if all top performers along the new hydrogen value chain can be set up and become operational as quickly as possible,” explains Thomas Thaler.
MPREIS as the first customer of JuVe AutoMotion GmbH
MPREIS, a food retailer based in Völs near Innsbruck, plays a pioneering role in the production of so-called “green hydrogen”, which is produced exclusively using electricity from renewable energies. MPREIS has been producing green hydrogen in its own plant since March 2022. The trucks of the local supplier are to be refueled with this in future, and in the long term the entire MPREIS fleet is to be converted to fuel cell trucks. JuVe AutoMotion GmbH emerged from this ambitious project, procuring and maintaining the vehicles as a strategic partner. The first three fuel cell trucks will be delivered and put into operation in the summer of 2022. MPREIS is the first medium-sized company in Austria to start supplying its food stores with CO2-free emissions.
A hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck from HYZON Motors (model: HYMAX SERIES) at the MPREIS hydrogen filling station in Völs (Tyrol).
JuVe AutoMotion as a partner with a wide range of services for new customers
The JuVe AutoMotion emerged from this pioneering project. It lays the foundation for the development of CO2-free freight transport in western Austria. The empirical values have a significant impact on the range of services offered by JuVe AutoMotion GmbH and are now also making the broad infrastructure for sustainable mobility offers in heavy goods traffic in Austria accessible to new customers.
JuVe AutoMotion acts in Austria as the exclusive sales partner of the fuel cell truck manufacturer Hyzon Motors Europe , importing and selling the state-of-the-art vehicles. If there is sufficient demand, JuVe will also offer the rental of fuel cell trucks to companies.
And of course companies that want to do the same as MPREIS and want to buy fuel cell vehicles need a professional after-sales service , the vehicles have professional maintenance. “After all, hydrogen-powered trucks cannot be serviced or repaired in a conventional workshop,” says Thaler. “Here, too, JuVe AutoMotion provides a professional service that meets safety standards.” In this area, JuVe cooperates with the Tyrolean car master company Auer GmbH in Thaur (Tyrol).
JuVe AutoMotion also contributes its expertise in the area of consulting , for example in national and international funding acquisition – with the aim of making the vehicle prices for FCEV trucks marketable and competitive with comparable diesel vehicles. Currently, the purchase price of an FCEV truck is 3.5 to 4 times that of a conventional diesel truck. In addition to project partnerships with other H2 projects (“upstream”), JuVe is also planning to include H2 buses and special vehicles in the product portfolio.
Valuable learning effects: Driving data is incorporated into further product development at Hyzon
In the summer of 2022, JuVe will deliver the first three Hyzon trucks to MPREIS. The vehicles are the first hydrogen trucks that will be on Austria’s roads. MPREIS also plans to use these on tours where the vehicles climb 700 meters and more. “Taking into account the topography in Tyrol, the tonnage and the additional consumers such as the cooling, we expect a range of approx. 450 to 500 km per refueling stop,” calculates Thomas Thaler. During the journey, the vehicle collects data that is transmitted online to the JuVe AutoMotion headquarters, where it is evaluated and passed on to the Hyzon company. This valuable experience from the first journeys by Hyzon Trucks in the Alps then flows into product development.
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