Heavy commercial vehicle leasing and rental company TR Group has ordered 20 Hyzon hydrogen fuel cell trucks for the New Zealand market.
The first units will be in New Zealand by mid-2022 for performance testing with the remainder arriving towards the end of the year.
The 600hp, 58 tonne gross combined mass (GCM) tractor units will be powered by 100% green hydrogen and will remove around 5000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.
They will be made available to customers through a fully maintained operating lease (FMOL) including fuel.
The New Zealand Government and Hiringa Refuelling New Zealand are developing the fuel supply network to support the trucks.
Hiringa Refuelling, along with their station partners Waitomo, will soon break ground on the first of four green hydrogen refuelling stations across key freight routes in the North Island.
The New Zealand Government has also been a key support in this project with $6 million in co-funding coming from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).
TR Group general manager Brendan King says he looks forward to seeing the new technology on local roads.
“We have had great uptake from customers for these vehicles, who share similar values to ourselves when it comes to decarbonising the transport network and making the world a greener place.
“If we are serious about reducing our impact on the environment, it is important that we embrace and seek to understand this technology and help develop it for New Zealand conditions as well as helping to develop the support networks for it, such as service and repair expertise and the vital refuelling infrastructure. This can only be done with real world use of this technology,” King says.
“Of course we couldn’t have done this without the support of our partners – EECA, the New Zealand Government, Hiringa Refuelling and Hyzon, and are incredibly grateful to them. We’re hugely excited about the learnings ahead and we look forward to playing our part in New Zealand’s journey towards a zero-emission transport future. There’s a long way to go but this is a really positive first step,” he says.
Hyzon Motors chief executive Craig Knight says his company “is proud to participate in this exceptional partnership with TR Group and Hiringa to decarbonise New Zealand’s heavy transport sector”.
