Ssab and Volvo to work on making green steel vehicles through hydrogen
The partnership is significant step towards a fossil-free value chain all the way to the end customer.
Ssab and Volvo Group will collaborate on R&D, serial production and commercialisation of the world’s first vehicles to be produced using green fossil-free steel, H2 Bulletin reports.
Ssab will make fossil-free steel using fossil-free electricity and hydrogen, which will result in lowering climate impact. It is anticipated that the future long term steel demand will be mainly fulfilled through green steel.
Volvo has planned to start producing the first concept vehicles and components from steel made by Ssab using hydrogen this year. The automaker plans to begin with a smaller-scale serial production in 2022 and slowly grow towards mass production within a few years. Both partners will work on optimising the weight and quality of steel in the vehicles. Light weighting is one of the ways automakers are following to improve fuel economy.
Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO at Volvo Group, said, “We are determined to be a climate-neutral company by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement. This means that our vehicles and machines will be emission-free when in operation but also that we will review the materials, like steel, used in our products and will gradually switch to fossil-free alternatives here as well.”
Martin Lindqvist, President and CEO at Ssab, said, “We will work together with our customers to reduce their climate impact while strengthening their competitiveness.”
Both partners also agreed to explore transport solutions that will see Ssab using Volvo batteries and fuel cell-powered vehicles to reduce emission.
As previously reported, Ssab plans to start supplying fossil-free steel at a commercial scale by 2026. It will use its Hybrit technology to develop with Lkab and Vattenfall to ensure a fossil-free value chain from mine to finished steel.
Both greenfield and brownfield green steel capacity announcements have been on the rise recently. In February 2021, a consortium included truckmaker Scania announced to build a 5 million tonnes/year green steel plant in Sweden.
