Walmart Launches Green Hydrogen Truck Trial in Chile

Swift Summary

• Green-Hydrogen Truck Deployment: Walmart Chile will test Latin america’s first green-hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck starting September 2025. The semitrailer will operate from Quilicura Distribution Center in Santiago for deliveries in central Chile.
• Testing phase: Data from the yearlong testing phase aims to develop plans for scaling hydrogen-powered trucks across Chile.
• Infrastructure Challenges: Despite abundant wind and solar resources, Chile lacks a comprehensive network of hydrogen refueling stations and technical operators needed for national coverage. Topography and geographic distances pose additional hurdles.
• Hydrohaul Partnership: Walmart’s initiative is part of a $6.15 million public-private partnership called the Hidrohaul Technological Program, supported by $3.45 million funding from Chile’s Production Progress Corporation to promote green transport solutions.
• Capabilities of the Truck: The Feichi-manufactured truck has a range of 750 km (practically closer to 560 km due to safety fuel considerations), can pull loads up to 49 tonnes, and holds 75 kg of hydrogen per refill.
• chile’s National Goals for Decarbonization: The country has pledged to phase out carbon-emitting heavy-duty vehicles by 2045 while investing in its green hydrogen market.

Indian Opinion Analysis

Chile’s adoption of green-hydrogen-fueled trucks demonstrates an essential shift toward sustainable transportation, which serves as an example globally. With its abundant renewable energy resources but challenging geography, the country must tackle infrastructure limits impinging on scalability-a critical insight for nations like India sharing parallel goals with their own vast terrain diversity.

For India, this development underscores opportunities-and obstacles-related to deploying cutting-edge clean transportation technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells in contexts beyond urban centers into rural or remote areas. India’s progress hinges on building efficient refueling networks coupled with national-level alignment across industrial policy implementation-similar multi-sector collaborations seen in hidrohaul consortium give case modeling logistic breakdown designing workable roadmap expansions!

Read More at https://spectrum.ieee.org/hydrogen-fuel-cell-walmart-chile.