TRUCK & BUSINESS 269

For once, I am not devoting this editorial to an economic trend or a political problem, but to transport equipment. For the past ten years, the hunt for CO2 emissions has been occupying transport companies. According to some, not enough. These are the ones who think that deciding to load goods onto trains from now on is enough to save our planet. Until recently, the only solutions that manufacturers offered their customers to reduce CO2 emissions were diesel engines with low consumption. A percentage here, two percentage there… in any case, progress was not fast enough to meet the objective of the Paris climate conference. In 2019, there are two camps in Europe: those who advocate natural gas and those who believe in electricity. The first are currently proposing a technical solution intended for medium and long distances, while the second group promises a green future for cities.

“Who will be the first European manufacturer to venture onto the hydrogen path? The coming years will be exciting in any case!”

No manufacturer has had the means and resources to develop all the alternatives, but they are all convinced that in the end it will be hydrogen that everyone will approve of. We can understand that within Traton, Scania plays the gas card and MAN that of electricity or that Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks do not share all their recipes for alternative propulsion. In the meantime, a global group like Daimler does not have, strictly speaking, any alternative propulsion in Europe for short or medium distances for customers who travel around 800 km per day. That is why the disruption of the landscape by new competitors such as Hyundai (in Switzerland) or Nikola (in Europe from 2023 if the promises are fulfilled) is a good thing: it will force the seven European manufacturers to put their cards on the table very quickly. I would be very surprised if there were no major announcement from one of the 'seven' in the field of hydrogen at the next IAA trade fair. Will it be DAF (Paccar collaborates with Toyota in this area in the United States), Iveco (the parent company has developed a complete driveline, which was presented at the IAA 2018) or another manufacturer? In terms of image, this dossier could yield a 'first mover advantage' (the advantage for the first to react). The years ahead will be interesting!