There is not going to one solution for Australia when it comes to lowering carbon emissions, it is going to be a ‘two bob each way’ kind of solution. There will not be one single silver bullet solution.

Instead we are likely to need a broad mix of solutions to keep the freight moving around Australia. Of course the mix will include battery electric trucks and fuel cell electric trucks, but some tasks will probably only be able to be handles by hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) technology.

This is the technology on show in this video from India. This is a country which shares quite a few conditions with Australia. Freight travels long distances on roads, which are not very well maintained, weather conditions are unreliable and often extreme and there are a lot of old trucks still on the road.

Not only is the country’s road infrastructure inadequate, so is its electric charging infrastructure, much like ours. This means a wide variety of zero carbon solutions are going to be needed in India, as the country, which is now the world’s most populous, sees economic growth accelerate at an increasing rate.

Ashok Leyland is a hangover from the British Raj, carrying the name of a truck brand which has long disappeared in its original country (swallowed up by DAF). The truck maker is renowned for its production of chassis and diesel engine units which it has sold into the Indian trucking community for them to build their own trucks around the basic driveline and chassis.

Times have changed since those days, and are changing even more rapidly during the drive towards zero carbon.

“We strive to be ahead of the curve and are proud to introduce our groundbreaking technology for our hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle, powered by green hydrogen,” says the press release with this video.

This second video sees earthmoving machinery manufacturer, JCB, explaining just how it hydrogen ICE works and the problem it has had to overcome, in order to come up with a hydrogen solution which can replicate the performance of a diesel engine in current equipment.