By Nick Carey
LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - The transition to zero-emission
fuel cell trucks will slash about half the jobs at Europe's
truck engine plants in the next 15 years, Daimler Truck Chief
Executive Martin Daum said on Friday, urging policymakers to
prepare for that now.
Truck makers are moving towards a zero-emission world as
hitting sustainability targets becomes more important for their
customers but the fuel cells have fewer moving parts and require
less labour to make than combustion engines.
"We have to be cognizant that about 50% of the jobs will go
away because a fuel cell and a battery are far less complex than
a diesel engine and a transmission today," Daum told Reuters.
"But the good thing is, we have a transition period of about
15 years and we have to start preparing for that today."
The world's largest truck maker is going "all-in" for
electric and hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles and on Thursday
said zero-emission vehicles should make up 60% of its sales by
2030 and 100% of sales by 2039.
However, Daum said building hydrogen fuelling infrastructure
is crucial to persuade sceptical fleet operators to buy the
trucks that will help Europe meet its climate goals.
"If we already had the trucks today that we will have in
2025 and beyond, we wouldn't sell a single one. Why? Because we
have no hydrogen fuelling network," he said.
This week Daimler AG's truck unit announced an
agreement with Shell under which from 2024 the oil
major will launch heavy-duty hydrogen-refuelling stations
between the green hydrogen production hubs at the Port of
Rotterdam in the Netherlands and in Cologne and Hamburg in
Germany.
The German company and rival Volvo AB last month
called for EU policies to boost fuelling infrastructure.
"The fear of running out of power is the issue where the
customer is the most sceptical," Daum said. "The decisive edge
will be the availability of fuelling infrastructure."
Carmaker Daimler will spin off Daimler Truck later this year
as it seeks greater investor appeal as a focused electric,
luxury car business.
Ahead of that spin-off, Daimler Truck said this week it
would focus on raising profit margins by 2025, in particular in
Europe.
Daum said the company's problems in Europe revolved around
cutting product costs and improving its service quality.
"We have a good product in Europe, it's too expensive to
produce," he said. "So we have to get the complexity out of the
product."
(Reporting By Nick Carey; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
