Ford Trucks recently announced that their vehicles will be supporting the Zero Emissions Freight EcoSystems (ZEFES) project through providing its prototype truck. In order to make this possible, Ford Trucks has reached out to Hexagon Purus with an order for hydrogen storage systems.

The ZEFES is a pan-European project which is working towards the aim of decarbonising long-haul heavy-duty truck operations within Europe. Ford Trucks are in support of this initiative and have agreed to participate. The trucks it supplies the project with will be included within a fleet of zero-emission trucks. The fleet will be made up of 9 trucks which will be operational within the project for 15 months. This will give them time to collect a maximum of 1 million km of driving data, which will represent real world data and will therefore provide the company with realistic results to help them improve and adapt their product for future use.

Ford Trucks made an order to Hexagon Purus, for the delivery of a hydrogen fuel storage system, which will be used in Ford’s prototype heavy-duty truck, the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) F-MAX, during the ZEFES project. The system is due to be delivered by Q1 2024.

The ZEFES project will use nine different long-haul trucks, these will be split into two categories, battery-electric and fuel cell electric trucks. There will be six battery-electric and three fuel cell electric trucks.

Aside from this project, ZEFES has 40 partners over a span of 14 countries, as well as a total investment program of 35.5 million euros.

The EVP of Hexagon Purus, Michael Kleschinski, commented, “We are using our in-depth knowledge of lightweight, reliable and safe hydrogen storage technology to help Ford Trucks pave the way for fuel cell electric long-haul heavy-duty trucking in Europe.”