(Credit: Ferguson Enterprises)Ferguson Enterprises has announced a collaboration with Ford Motor Company to place a F550 Fuel Cell Prototype Chassis Work Truck in service within Ferguson's daily fleet operations for six months. Participation in Ford's F550 Fuel Cell Prototype Work Truck, a DOE SuperTruck 3 Initiative, will help Ferguson to reduce Scope 1 emissions from its fleet.
This pilot program aims to evaluate how fuel cell technology will operate within the Ferguson fleet while providing real-world usage data to Ford. Ferguson will provide Ford with vehicle data and feedback about the technology to help Ford better define the engineering requirements for commercial vehicle duty cycles. This data will be used to address ongoing industry challenges within the medium-duty and heavy-duty segments, like battery range and payload capacity, that have prevented faster conversion to environmentally friendlier options. As part of this collaboration, Ferguson will also prepare a location in Charlotte, NC for the installation of temporary infrastructure equipment for the duration of the pilot.
This pilot program with Ford will help Ferguson's previously announced pilot program to launch 30 class 6 through 8 all-electric delivery trucks in its fleet in collaboration with Holman and Electrada. The fleet management and electrification solutions enable Ferguson to deploy medium and heavy-duty all-electric vehicles throughout California and improve the development of the necessary charging and energy management infrastructure.
In a press release, Ford noted that this collaboration with Ferguson is a strong example of the potential of fuel cell propulsion systems and how they might address the application gaps that battery electric vehicles just can't fulfill. The potential of hydrogen, the most plentiful element on the planet, coupled with fuel cell technology has tremendous potential to power larger, heavier commercial vehicles while still delivering zero tailpipe emissions.
This isn’t the first pilot program that Ford has been involved in this year: FedEx Office is piloting the use of Ford E-Transit electric vans in nine markets for its same-day delivery services.
The company will use 10 of the vans in its FedEx SameDay City network as it works toward transitioning its entire pickup and delivery fleet to zero-emissions vehicles by 2040. That goal aligns with the overall fleet electrification target for FedEx.
