Hydrogen Engine or Hydrogen Fuel Cell? Why Not Both? Volvo Trucks takes us inside its two-pronged development strategy [View all]

Hydrogen Engine or Hydrogen Fuel Cell? Why Not Both?

Volvo Trucks takes us inside its two-pronged hydrogen powertrain development strategy.

Volvo | Aug 15, 2025

Hydrogen powertrain development in heavy-duty trucks typically evokes one big question: Why develop both hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen internal combustion engines? Mehdi Ferhan, senior vice president of powertrain engineering, Volvo Trucks, has the answer.

“There is no silver bullet, one-size-fits-all-solution for the entire world markets,” Ferhan said. “Here we are being very careful to find the right compromise or the right trade-off to offer a correct value proposition for different types of use cases of course at the affordability of the customers.”

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Why Both Hydrogen Powertrains Matter

When comparing the two technologies, a hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) truck operates as a fully mechanical vehicle—similar to a diesel—but runs on hydrogen. A fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), by contrast, produces only water vapor at the tailpipe, offers higher efficiency, but comes with a higher system cost.



Then there’s the regulations and political climates that vary across the globe.

“Different regions of the world mean different customer expectations will leave room for different types of technologies,” Ferhan said. “In Europe we have the CO2 new emission standards, which would qualify the hydrogen combustion engine as a real zero emission vehicle, and this leaves of course some room to accelerate this technology to the market in Europe.” ...more
https://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/hydrogen-engine-fuel-cell-volvo/
Volvo: Sustainable Transportation
https://www.volvogroup.com/en/sustainable-transportation/sustainable-solutions/hydrogen-fuel-cells.html

Volvo Trucks – Get to know hydrogen