- America’s Glickenhaus has revealed the design for a hydrogen pickup truck
- Glickenhaus’ pickup truck features swappable tanks that can be taken to specialized refueling depots
- Glickenhaus is targeting a range of 800 miles and operating costs comparable to a diesel pickup
Glickenhaus, a race car constructor and manufacturer of supercars and wild off-roaders, has for the past several years been exploring the potential of cars fueled by hydrogen.
The company showcased the design for a hydrogen supercar in 2021 and followed it up in 2022 with the design for a hydrogen version of its current Boot off-roader.
The latest development is a hydrogen pickup truck called the H2 Zero Emission Pickup. Like Glickenhaus’ past hydrogen efforts, the pickup is only a design at this stage, but the company plans to begin testing prototypes shortly, based on the platform of its 008 off-roader.
Glickenhaus hasn’t revealed many details yet, but the company’s earlier hydrogen vehicle designs envisioned fuel cells generating electricity to power electric motors. The only byproduct would be water. However, actually finding places that sell hydrogen remains a challenge.
Glickenhaus H2 Zero Emission Pickup
Glickenhaus’ solution is to develop the pickup with a swappable hydrogen tank system. Drivers could pull up to specialized refueling depots and have the tanks swapped quickly. These depots could be owned and operated by the fleet customers Glickenhaus aims to target with the pickup, and could potentially generate the hydrogen on the spot.
The tanks would hold the hydrogen in compressed form instead of liquid form, allowing Glickenhaus to skip special refrigeration systems. Glickenhaus also said it is developing a sort of range extender that uses solar panels and water to generate hydrogen. While this process would be slow, it could provide a solution for anyone wanting to drive the pickup to remote locations.
Glickenhaus said it plans to offer the pickup in two- and four-door configurations, with a choice of six- and eight-foot beds. The estimated range on a full tank of hydrogen is 800 miles, while other metrics, such as operating costs and performance, are targeted to match those of a comparable diesel pickup, according to the company.