S 648 Introduced

Fuel Cell Vehicles

Last month, Sen Coons (D,DE) introduced S 648, the Hydrogen for Trucks Act of 2023. The bill would require DOT to establish a grant program to support “funding capital projects to purchase heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles and related equipment, including hydrogen fueling stations.” It would authorize $200 million per year through 2028 to fund the program.

Definitions

Section 2(a) of the bill provides the key definitions for four terms used in the legislation. The main technical term defined is ‘heavy-duty fuel cell vehicle’.

The Program

The goals of the program would include:

• Demonstration of the performance and reliability of heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles in different regions of the United States,

• Providing a basis for relevant cost evaluations and cost reductions, and

• Accelerating the market deployment of heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles.

Section 2(b) outlines the requirement for the new DOT heavy-duty fuel cell vehicle grant program. The program would provide funds for projects that include at least 7 heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles or hydrogen fueling stations. The monies could be used for:

• Capital costs,

• Costs associated with labor, complying with maintenance requirements, and grant administration,

• Overhead costs,

• Costs of training personnel to ensure safety and best practices during construction, fueling and refueling, maintenance, and upkeep, and

• Costs of leak detection, response and reporting.

Moving Forward

Coons is not a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, but two of his seven cosponsors {Sen Hickenlooper (D,CO) and Sen Lujan (D,NM)} are members. This means that their may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in committee. As I have mentioned with similar bills (here and here), I do not see anything other than the cost of the program that would engender any organized support. If a solution were found for the funding issue, I think that this bill would receive bipartisan support.

Commentary

While the cost of this bill is a potential political issue, the funding number is reasonable. According to one study, the cost of fuel-cell powered fright truck is between $200,000 to $600,000, so the proposed maximum funding per vehicle ($500,000) is well within that range. Assuming (for arguments sake) that the 20% cost share will go for overhead, etc, that means that if the funding were to go to just vehicles it would fund somewhere between 40 and 100 vehicles per year. Given the number of hydrogen fueling stations that will be needed to support these fleets, the number will be significantly smaller. That is not going to grow manufacturing capability very quickly.