Heidelberg is giving up on its hydrogen garbage truck. The city's waste department told its main and finance committee that the vehicle will «never be brought into a permanently reliable operating condition» (translated from German), electrive.net reports. The committee's Sept. 30 agenda lists an item to convert the fuel-cell refuse truck to diesel.
The numbers
- Bought in 2022 for just under €1.2 million gross, with a subsidy of nearly €745,000 from the H2Rivers program.
- Its downtime rate ranged from 44% to 85% between 2023 and August 2026, averaging 64%.
- The conversion is estimated at €240,000 gross, against €426,200 for a comparable new truck. It is expected to take about a year.
What happens to the truck
The vehicle is based on a Mercedes-Benz eEconic with a fuel-cell range extender. The refuse body and lifter will be mounted on a new conventional chassis. The old hydrogen chassis will be kept as a source of spare parts. Officials said other municipal operators report similar problems. electrive notes that Leipzig's 16 hydrogen trucks reached 45.6% availability in their first two years.