Hyzon – Provenance for our region and automotive

Provenance for our region and automotive

Hyzon is spearheading a foundational and fundamental change for Australia with a new manufacturing facility for automotive underway in Victoria

‘It’s not a folly, it’s not a shot in the dark, it’s a fundamental change that’s really viable,’ John Edgley, managing director for Hyzon Motors Australia and New Zealand told VTE Magazine during an interview. Exciting news for the local economy and for manufacturing jobs for the future as well as engineering, which is close to Nr Edgley’s heart as a mechanical engineering graduate of Melbourne University in the early 1990s. Mid last year Mr Edgley joined Hyzon in the same month as the company listed on the NASDAQ, during COVID and at a time when one of the founders of parent company Horizon Fuel Cells, Craig Knight, was holed up in Sydney and unable to leave the country due to the pandemic. Perhaps a fortunate thing as he was able to do a lot of early business development work in the region. Mr Knight, an Australian, is usually located in New York and it has been said that his roots may have led to Hyzon engaging with the Australian market. Horizon Fuel Cells was founded about 18 years ago as a Singaporean company making fuel cells, Hyzon Motors is a natural spin off with the evolution of the fuel alternative and now the company is setting up in Noble Park, Melbourne on the same site as the RACV headquarters. “Yes, 2000 square metres is the site that we’re on today. And the extension, which was part of our announcement with RACV is what we’re developing. We’re building a 10,000 square metre facility on the same site,” Mr Edgley said. Along with the manufacturing facilities there will be a showroom, corporate offices and warehousing in a facility estimated to cost more than $50 million. “It happens to be part of an existing facility that was developed by the RACV in the seventies. It’s got great provenance for the region and for automotive. It’s suitable and we’ll be able to produce somewhere around a hundred vehicles a year. “The other part is that there are a number of formats that we are importing from overseas. So, there’s a prime mover – a cab over prime mover – being imported from Europe. We’re using local suppliers and purchasing nearly all the key components of that, but the master assembly is happening in a European facility. And we’ve got a very strong sourcing relationship through our division in China for some of the bus and coach market.” For Australia the strategy focus is leading the development of the Hyzon heavy rigid truck platform. Global engineering for that is in Australia, with master assembly also here though the chassis is imported, the cab and fuel cells also imported but the assembly will be at Noble Park. The development of the structure, the ancillary bill of materials – the majority of that is to be sourced locally alongside the workforce.

John Edgley, Managing Director for Hyzon Motors Australia and New Zealand

“The local development that we’re doing here for that platform globally is about everything to do with the vehicle. It’s about the operating system. It’s about compliance, not just with Australian design regulations, but it’s to do with compliance for the drivetrain, it’s about the design and development of the drivetrain to proving the drivetrain and the integration of the hydrogen system into the chassis. It’s full vehicle assembly and development and engineering,” Mr Edgley added. “We’re taking the lead on the current program. We’re building the team and adding engineers for localization of vehicles. We’re building a facility and the manufacturing plant, which, you know, all of it requires engineers to operate and manage. “I think as we grow out the hundred plus local jobs that we announced, 80 percent of those will be working on the factory floor. And some of those will be engineers and some of those will be fabricators, some of them will be electricians. I think that 80/20 split is about right. But of course, that’ll depend on how much engineering we’re able to drive down here and I have a bias to that. I happen to think that Australian engineers are some of the best in the world. And that’s why we’re leading the development of this heavy rigid program.” Australia’s supply chain will also benefit from this establishment and Mr Edgley said that it was already becoming obvious although the chain was shortened after the exodus of car manufacturing and possibly since IVECO’s announcement late last year that it would draw the curtain on manufacturing trucks at its Dandenong plant just up the road from Hyzon. However, with that exodus comes an opportunity to perhaps re-employ local manufacturing personnel who had been with IVECO including engineers and tradespeople. “There are great service firms here to do with homologation and to do with ADR compliance. We’ve already partnered with some of them. When I say partner, we’ve engaged them to help us with the vehicle development for this platform for the localization of the imported platform for validation and quality control on imported parts,” Mr Edgley explained. Growing the supplier base is important for Australia, second and third tier suppliers employ a significant number of engineers and hopefully companies like Hyzon will revitalise that sector and accelerate growth. Behind

that though Mr Edgley said Government at all levels needs to get behind the changes by accelerating the trends to change from diesel to hydrogen ‘they are both an enabler and our direct customers’ explained Mr Edgley. “The garbage trucks, for instance, the government is our customer’s customer. And I think the more that happens, the faster we’re able to build capacity of the facility, the more local jobs will be created directly on the shop floor, but also throughout the local supply chain,” he said. Contracts were already afoot in Australia for Hyzon with Fortescue Metal Group taking coaches, prime movers for Coregas in New South Wales, and prime movers for the TR Group in New Zealand and it has an agreement with garbage truck company Superior Pak in Queensland. Now the RACV’s towing arm the Nationwide Group expects delivery of three locally made prototype tow trucks by the end of this year. The prototypes are two Hyzon HyMax TT7 tilt-tray trucks and one HyMax prime mover. Overseas in 2021 shipments were delivered in heavy duty truck models ranging in weight from 18 to 49 metric tonnes for applications including garbage collection, sewer cleaning, steel haulage and dump trucks. “The RACV has a very broad business, they own 100 percent of Nationwide Towing. Most people just see it as a roadside assist or insurance, but under the current CEO, there’s been a tremendous diversification and investment in energy. And so, there’s great synergy there with the evolution of hydrogen,” Mr Edgley said. “So, there was a great fit in terms of one – the site, which is in the industrial heart of the automotive industry. The second is the tie-up with Nationwide as a great partner for early testing and adoption of the vehicles and I think that’s a solid foundation for us to be able to partner with them and work together. “We’re actively working to marry hydrogen up with key users. And so, our early customers are back-to-base operators. When you’ve got a vehicle with a 600-kilometre range, which is our base prime mover or 300 kilometres and 1200 bin lifts for our garbage trucks you don’t actually need a hydrogen refuelling station in every fuelling station. “With hydrogen, you can make it in your own backyard. So as a corporate owner investor, you can build your own stainless-steel plant and equipment and operate that and actually create your own fuel. You don’t have to put a penny of that offshore. Whereas with diesel, you’re entirely relying on a system that is importing at least two thirds of the stock from overseas. And so, I think that’s the other part of independence. And from an engineering perspective there’s tremendous opportunity. “There’s tremendous activity now, nearly every engineering firm I’ve come across has a growing hydrogen division. There are startups that are coming up with new technology around electrolysers and compression technology. “The influence on taking an entire industry that is fed by imported product and replacing that with an industry that is entirely domestic is a foundational and a fundamental change for the economy.” Competitors on the market are few and far between, so far, but Hyzon is not naïve enough to think that will be the case in the future and wants to get the most out of its early advantage. It is also looking across the ‘ditch’ to New Zealand as an export possibility. “What we are exporting is we’re exporting engineering expertise through the development program that we’re running globally for our heavy rigid platform. That’s not an immediately obvious one, but it’s certainly important when you’re talking about the value that Australia shows and leverages overseas. The products definitely we will be exporting to New Zealand,” Mr Edgley concluded. Let’s hope that this is the start of a new upswing in manufacturing for Australia to generate more new jobs and stimulate new technology to underpin a sustainable future for the region.