Bosch Launching Hydrogen Combustion Engine

LAS VEGAS – Bosch Mobility is going all-in on the emerging hydrogen economy for mobility, announcing it will launch an internal-combustion engine that runs on hydrogen this year, and that it has received its first orders for its fuel-cell stacks from customers in China, Europe and the U.S.

Bosch, one of the largest auto/mobility suppliers in the world, on Jan. 1 split its Bosch Mobility unit from its conventional lines of ICE businesses to focus on electrification and hydrogen enterprises.

Germany-based Bosch expects to post $5.3 billion in sales by the end of the decade from hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen ICEs and electrolyzers that make hydrogen.

Bosch aims to be a major supplier to automotive and truck makers as the heavy trucking industry worldwide transitions from diesel engines to zero-emission hydrogen-based propulsion. The company is also harnessing its technology for the stationary hydrogen industry. Bosch says it is investing $2.6 billion in hydrogen between 2021 and 2026.

Bosch is not alone in championing hydrogen combustion engines.

Daimler Truck and engine maker Cummins, which is investing $452 million in a plant in Jamestown, NY, announced plans last year to make fuel-agnostic variants of Cummins' X15 engine.

Bosch expects to start production in 2024, three years sooner than Cummins. 

Interest in hydrogen internal-combustion powertrains is rising following a recent European Commission decision declaring them “zero emission” despite a small amount of carbon dioxide being generated from burning of hydrogen as a fuel.

“We are looking beyond traditional energy sources for more sustainable alternatives. We are focusing in particular on hydrogen,” Tanja Ruckert, a member of the Bosch board of management, says during a presentation at CES 2024 here. “We believe it will be central to meeting our future climate-neutral energy needs.”

That involves “investing heavily in hydrogen technologies and developing solutions along the hydrogen value chain,” says Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America. “A major thrust of our efforts is the hydrogen-fuel-cell powertrain, which we believe is the path to electrification for heavier vehicles.”

An early customer is Nikola, which began production of a fuel-cell electric truck, the Class 8 Tre, in the third quarter at a plant in Coolidge, AZ.