Ports Spend $425,000 on Vision Motor Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Trucks
By Scott Doggett December 28, 2010The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will spend a combined $425,000 to help fund a $1 million demonstration project involving hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks made by El Segundo, Calif.-based Vision Motor Corp. as the nation's two largest ports look for ways to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in one of the country-s most polluted regions.
The two ports will bring in one fuel-cell heavy-duty truck and one fuel-cell yard tractor in either April or May, according to Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman with the Port of Los Angeles. The short-haul truck will be operated by trucking firm Total Transportation Services, while California Cartage Express will operate the yard truck. Each vehicle will be used for about 18 months.
Right, the Vision Tyrano FCEV.
The nation's two largest ports, which combined to process 11.8 million twenty-foot containers and a total cargo value of more than $315 billion in 2009, are looking to help clean up a Southern California region that has improved its air quality over the past several decades but remains at or near the top of most surveys measuring air pollution.
Los Angeles, Long Beach and Riverside came in at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 in the American Lung Association's 2010 rankings of worst ozone, highest year-round particle pollution and highest short-term particle pollution, respectively.
In addition to the benefit of zero emissions, there could be cost savings involved for trucking companies once the infrastructure for hydrogen is established, as hydrogen costs about a third less than diesel fuel, Sanfield said.
The project may be a boon for Vision, which hasn't recently announced any agreements to deliver trucks to other ports and remains in its startup phase. Through the first nine months of the year, Vision's loss widened to $3.06 million from $2.37 million a year earlier as the company boosted its research and development costs to $283,000 from just $14,000 a year earlier, Vision said in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing last month.
Vision will also be funding the $575,000 not provided by the ports for the project, according to Sanfield, who added that the Port of Los Angeles had previously ordered an additional Vision truck that hasn't been delivered. That truck has an additional fuel cell that will give it a 400-mile range on a single hydrogen tank.
The Port of Long Beach doesn't have any plans to purchase other fuel-cell vehicles, according to port spokesman Lee Peterson.
Left, the Vision ZETT FCEV.
Vision's on-road class-8 heavy duty truck - the Tyrano - weights 80,000 pounds, can store as many as 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of gaseous hydrogen and can travel the 200 miles required during a typical short-haul trucking day, according to Vision. The truck has about 500 horsepower and can deliver about 3,200 foot-pounds of torque.
Vision's ZETT yard tractor, which the company co-developed with specialty-vehicle maker Capacity of Texas, is 130,000 pounds, can deliver 225 horsepower and can operate for two eight-hour shifts on a single tank of hydrogen.
(Contributor Danny King prepared this piece. A flaw in our new publishing system automatically gives writer's credit to the posting editor. We hope to have this fixed soon.)
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