Hydrogen-powered Ford Ranger hits the road

After missing its original debut date by nearly a year, Australian start-up H2X Global has revealed its first running prototype of the hydrogen fuel-cell powered H2X Warrego.

Based on the just-superseded Ford Ranger ute, the all-wheel drive Warrego has been shown off in two videos testing in the Netherlands, where it is soon to undergo certification.

But H2X promises it hasn’t forgotten Australia, reaffirming its intention to build the Warrego on an assembly line in the Victorian town of Sale, as well as in Europe.

The Warrego re-appears just weeks after Queensland start-up Roev announced its intention to start building battery electric Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger utes in 2023.

H2X first broke cover in 2020, when it announced its intention to reboot Australian auto manufacturing using hydrogen fuel-cells to generate electricity for its range of commercial and private vehicles rather than batteries.

However, it has had its challenges, setbacks and restructures since then.

One year ago H2X announced the Warrego would cost $200,000, be demonstrated in November 2021 on the Gold Coast and be on sale by April 2022.

But CEO and co-founder Brendan Norman insisted in a company press release that H2X was now back on track.

“It is true that we have had some frustrating delays over the past nine months, however, we are now well on track with our roll out plans,” Norman said.

“Supply chain issues, which have negatively impacted manufacturing companies worldwide, put us about nine months behind schedule, however, our production and engineering teams have done an amazing job to overcome these problems and we are now back on schedule.”

H2X says the Warrego is now undergoing final validation and verification testing procedures in the Netherlands as it heads towards gaining European and global certification.

Australian certification testing will commence soon, the statement said.

Norman explained the focus for the first Warrego had been for a European release for a number of reasons, but mainly due to the availability of hydrogen at customer level in several cities where order status has been high and government support is present to develop the hydrogen economy.

In Australia the establishment of hydrogen infrastructure is proceeding slowly, meaning the Warrego will have only a small buying audience even before taking its price into account.

But the appeal of fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) remains obvious; their refuelling rate – if you can access a refueller – is much quicker than battery-electric vehicles and they don’t have to plug into the grid and potentially draw down dirty electricity created by burning coal.

Key modifications to the H2X Warrego – starting at the front and moving to the back – are a supercapacitor pack with a 90,000-amp output and 8kW storage capacity to replace the diesel engine in the engine bay.

There’s also a PDU (power distribution unit) with a 250kW electric motor above it that attaches directly to the standard Ranger transfer unit, the ECU (engine control unit), a loop water cooling system for the fuel-cell, then the 60kW fuel-cell, a DC/DC converter, the water vapour outlet and a polymer carbon-fibre hydrogen fuel tank that can operate at up to 700-bar.

However, in the prototype the tank sits in the cargo bed rather than under the rear floor.

H2X claims the Warrego has a 450km range.

The Warrego demonstrates the platform that is intended as a basis for the upcoming H2X Darling Delivery Van due around 2025. H2X says this will be its first fully developed and optimised vehicle.

“The Warrego is essentially a demonstration vehicle which we are able to offer to several customers in order to accelerate the availability of an AWD light commercial vehicles to customers, using a state-of-the-art Hybrid Hydrogen Fuel Cell System,” said Norman.

“This application will be applied in a more optimised form in the Darling Delivery Van and Taxi/MPV targeted for release to support the large number of cities in Europe which will be closed off from diesel and petrol vehicles from 2025.”

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