GM receives $26M in federal funding for hydrogen fuel cell medium-duty trucks

General Motors has been awarded $26 million in federal funding to develop medium-duty trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, the automaker said Tuesday.

As part of the five-year project, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's SuperTruck 3 program, GM said it will work with Southern Co., an electric and gas utility company in the southeastern U.S., to deploy hydrogen fuel cell-powered medium-duty trucks at work sites in Georgia.

GM said it also will work with Southern Co. and Nel Hydrogen US to establish a microgrid that can generate, store and fuel both medium-duty trucks and stationary power generators that use GM's Hydrotec fuel cells. The microgrid will use Nel's proton exchange membrane electrolyzers, which use water and electricity to generate hydrogen and oxygen.

GM and its partner companies will fund the remainder of the $65 million project after the Energy Department's contribution. The U.S. Army's Ground Vehicle Systems Center also is providing funding, GM said.

"We will design, engineer and develop a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell medium-duty trucks to demonstrate how the capability and strength of our fuel cells can help real-world fleet customers," Jacob Lozier, a GM program engineering manager working on the SuperTruck 3 application, told reporters in a briefing.

"A primary goal for the project is demonstrating reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent compared to diesel fleet equipment. To do that, we recognize the need for infrastructure advancement," Lozier said. "The GM SuperTruck project looks beyond the trucks themselves to the entire hydrogen ecosystem needed to support them."

The vehicles used in the pilot program will resemble a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 5500 medium-duty truck, sharing a frame and body, and use GM's Hydrotec fuel cell systems for power, the automaker said. They will have more than 300 miles of range per GM estimates and a gross vehicle weight rating of 19,500 pounds.

The trucks will be able to produce more than 300 kilowatts of power that can be used as offboard power to charge job sites or electric vehicles when standard EV charging is unavailable, Lozier said.

GM said the first prototypes were built in Michigan and are being tested at its Milford Proving Ground, near Detroit.

Some automakers are experimenting with hydrogen fuel cell technology as another option to reduce emissions. In January, GM and Honda marked the start of production of hydrogen fuel cell systems through a joint venture near Detroit. GM has said it sees hydrogen fuel cells as a potential replacement for diesel engines, particularly in heavy-duty commercial vehicles that carry heavy payloads and need to refuel fast.

GM also is working with Autocar Industries to put hydrogen fuel cells in vehicles such as cement mixers and roll-off trucks starting in 2026, and with Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu on a hydrogen fuel cell mining vehicle prototype that could start testing by the middle of the decade. GM also is working with Nel Hydrogen US to speed up industrial production of Nel's proton exchange membrane electrolyzer.

"By using hydrogen's high-energy storage density advantages, these propulsion systems can refuel in minutes, much like conventional petroleum-fueled engines. This makes the technology suitable for customers that use their vehicles as tools, where uptime is a priority," said Charlie Freese, executive director of GM's Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cell business.

"The technology is also scalable, which means that arrays of fuel cells can provide power to very large vehicles or power generation systems, even at a megawatt scale," Freese said. "GM is in a unique position having strengths in both lithium-ion battery technology and hydrogen fuel cell systems. This allows us to apply technology where it makes the most sense for our customers."