UC Davis

This study aims to compare the feasibility of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell powertrains for concrete mixer trucks to determine which is the better zero-emission powertrain for the industry to transition towards. Duty cycle modeling simulations are used to estimate both the component specifications required to meet the operational requirements of the vehicles, and the associated performance of the powertrain technologies. Associated costs for fleets are compared using Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assessments. The duty cycle modeling results show that a battery electric mixer would consume up to 4 kWh of energy per mile on average when considering the auxiliary loads, which is around twice that of a typical class 8 battery electric truck. A truck with a battery size resulting in only an 80-mile range would have a 10% payload penalty, even with additional weight allowances for zero-emission trucks. A fuel cell electric mixer truck could have a 150-mile range but would still have a payload penalty, even with the additional weight allowances. A battery swap-capable truck could have no payload penalty compared to diesel, but would require swapping before each delivery, and adding battery swapping stations could be an issue at certain plants. The TCO of fuel cell trucks is currently 27% higher than that of diesel trucks. The TCO of battery electric trucks could be lower than that of diesel models as of today, and could be 25% lower than diesel TCO by 2030, while the fuel cell truck TCO would still be 10% higher than diesel, even by 2030. Based on our analysis, a battery swap concrete mixer truck could be the best zero-emission option for this application, but existing chassis are not currently available in the US. The lack of existing battery swap-capable chassis availability in the US will be a substantial barrier for battery swap mixer trucks, and custom solutions for a mixer application will likely not be cost effective due to the limited yearly sales volume of concrete mixer trucks.