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The Tyrolean food retailer MPREIS has put Austria’s first hydrogen-powered truck into operation. MPREIS produces the green hydrogen that powers the new vehicle itself. In the next few years, the entire MPREIS vehicle fleet is to be gradually converted to fuel cell trucks. The company, which has long been committed to sustainability, wants to make a further contribution to achieving the climate goals.
“It’s a good feeling to drive a truck that is quiet and only emits steam,” says MPREIS truck driver Zoran Adjelkovic, who skillfully steers the new fuel cell vehicle of the Tyrolean food retailer MPREIS over the A12. For the time being, the driver uses the emission-free articulated lorry to deliver to MPREIS branches that are close to the Inntal autobahn between the company headquarters in Völs near Innsbruck and Kufstein. Solo trucks, which will later be added to the fleet, will then drive to the branches in the Tyrolean valleys.
Green hydrogen as a contribution to climate change
MPREIS has long been a pioneer in the field of environmental protection and sustainability. The Tyrolean family business is one of the largest photovoltaic operators in Austria and was the first company in Europe to build a passive house supermarket. Now they are relying on green hydrogen, “because we are pushing ahead with the decarbonization of our company and want to be ‘part of the solution’ in relation to climate change,” says MPREIS Managing Director Martina Dutzler. The new hydrogen-powered truck is the first of its kind to roll on Austria’s roads. MPREIS produces the green hydrogen it uses itself. For this purpose, the Tyrolean local supplier has built Europe’s largest single-stack electrolysis system , which was officially opened on March 2nd, 2023.
The H2 truck is also refueled at the company headquarters in Völs. MPREIS has built a hydrogen filling station there, which is the first truck filling station including trailer filling station in Austria and currently the most powerful hydrogen filling station in Europe.
H2 truck saves 65,000 kilograms of CO2 per year
An H2 truck that weighs 19 tons without a trailer needs around 39 kilograms of hydrogen for a full tank. It fills up in about 11 minutes. The distance that the fuel cell vehicle can cover with a full tank is around 450 kilometers. It is also impressive how much CO2 or diesel a hydrogen-powered truck can save. “Our truck fleet, which is currently still largely powered by diesel, is a major greenhouse gas emitter with around 4,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. An H2 truck reduces emissions by around 65,000 kilograms (65 tons) of CO2 per year compared to a conventional diesel truck. The amount of diesel that it saves is around 25,000 liters per year,” says Ewald Perwög, project initiator of MPREIS Hydrogen.
Hyzon fuel cell truck
The first MPREIS hydrogen truck was manufactured by the American vehicle manufacturer Hyzon Motors, which develops and produces vehicles for the European market in the Netherlands. The “HYZON Hymax 250” vehicle was adapted to the needs of MPREIS. The Tyrolean start-up “JuVe AutoMotion” based in Innsbruck, which operates in the areas of trading, operation and maintenance of hydrogen-powered fuel cell commercial vehicles, puts the hydrogen-powered trucks into operation for MPREIS. In the future, the company, which was founded in 2021, will serve the entire Austrian market as a central importer of Hyzon vehicles in Austria and as a full-service provider for fuel cell trucks.