The hydrogen garbage truck will be used in Ingolstadt in the future

Ingolstadt is a pioneer in Bavaria: Municipal companies (INKB) now also use hydrogen waste collection vehicles. The first of these modern electric cars was presented on Tuesday in the town hall square. Lord Mayor Christian Sharpf said: “Bringing this innovative and forward-looking technology into everyday use is a huge benefit for environmental and climate protection.”

The new vehicle is equipped with a fuel cell engine: compared to conventional garbage trucks, this saves about 17,500 liters of diesel and more than 46,000 kg of CO2 emissions per year and vehicle.

Hydrogen technology is particularly suitable for large commercial vehicles. Therefore, INKB ordered another garbage truck and sweeper with this technology for use test in street cleaning.

All three purchases are backed with a good sum of two million euros by the Federal Ministry of Transport. This supports about 90 percent of the additional costs compared to conventional vehicles.

Looking forward to feedback

“We are proud of our ability to contribute to the introduction of innovative and climate-friendly technology in Ingolstadt and Germany,” says Thomas Schweiger, member of the Board of Directors of INKB. “We will now test the garbage truck in everyday work in terms of security of supply and environmental costs and benefits and are particularly looking forward to feedback from the workforce,” Schweiger continues.

Drivers, garbage collectors and workshop staff are all trained on garbage truck. Cargo infrastructure has been organized in Ingolstadt. The garbage truck is equipped with a 110 kWh battery electric motor, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell with a maximum output of 30 kW. 16 kg of hydrogen can be refueled.

In addition, the car recovers energy when the accelerator pedal is not depressed. This so-called recovery also ensures that mechanical braking is only required in the event of emergency braking. As a result, less particulate matter is produced overall. The vehicle’s electric thrust is 240 kW and torque is 4,000 Nm.

Several cameras secure the surroundings

The maximum payload is nine tons. Similar to a bus, you can access the driver’s cabin via a low step. In addition, the garbage truck can be operated with an accelerator pedal, which makes it easier to operate. It has multiple cameras all around and stops automatically if you get close to, say, a pedestrian in your blind spot.

Municipal companies are partners of the “IN2H2 – Ingolstadt Hydrogen Concept” project. The “IN2H2” concept proposal, which received an award from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, aims to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of hydrogen mobility in municipal vehicle fleets in relation to local hydrogen production.