General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) has partnered with Autocar Industries to jointly develop a range of zero tailpipe emissions commercial vehicles, with the first vehicles expected to enter production in 2026 at Autocar’s Birmingham, Alabama plant.
The two companies announced on Thursday that the vehicles will be powered by GM’s HYDROTEC power cubes, a fuel cell propulsion system solution containing more than 300 hydrogen fuel cells that can meet the needs of commercial vehicles.
The HYDROTEC fuel cell power cubes will be produced by GM in Brownstown, Michigan and vehicles using the technology will be built to order by Autocar and sold directly to consumers.
The companies said they plan to start with cement mixers and roll-off and dump trucks because they share a common architecture, to be followed by refuse trucks and terminal tractors.
“Electric vehicle (EV) propulsion systems like GM’s Ultium Platform are great solutions for electrifying passenger vehicles, but larger vehicles like Autocar’s class 8 trucks, refuse trucks and terminal tractors require robust solutions that enable significant energy carrying capacity and fast refueling times,” GM executive director of Global HYDROTEC Charlie Freese said in a statement.
“We want to enable zero tailpipe emissions solutions for the largest, highest energy-consuming vehicles, and fuel cells are ideal for the most energy-intensive applications.”
Autocar president Eric Schwartz added: “Autocar provides customized vocational trucking solutions, and as regulations change, we see HYDROTEC fuel cells as an additional avenue for our customers to meet their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements with zero tailpipe emissions vehicles.”
GM shares traded up 1.9% at US$33.54 on the news.
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