The IAA Transportation is probably the single- most important event within the world of trucking. It takes place every two years – and gives us a glimpse into the future. If the 2024 rendition of the fair – which took place in Hanover in mid-September – is anything to go by, that future will be peppered with hydrogen propulsion and Chinese products.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to decarbonising transport. If we’ve heard this once, we’ve heard it a thousand times.

Yet, back in 2022, the OEMs exhibiting at that year’s IAA seemed obsessed with a silver bullet, namely battery-electric vehicles (BEVs). They were everywhere. As this magazine’s editorial director Dave McCoid noted then, “playing ‘find the internal combustion engine (ICE)’ was a complete waste of time on the Volvo stand”. That was because the company didn’t have a single ICE truck on its stand back in 2022.

Volvo wasn’t alone in its love affair with BEVs during the 2022 IAA. Playing ‘find the ICE’ was just as challenging on many other stands back then. Everyone seemed besotted with BEVs.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the fascination with battery technology remains. Indeed, for the second time in as many years, the 2025 International Truck of the Year title went to an electric truck (New Zealand Trucking, October 2024).

But, in 2024, the cogs in two other “engines” began to turn – dramatically. Those two powerhouses are hydrogen (fuel cells and hydrogen ICE) and China. And, if the 2024 IAA is anything to go by (which it just may be), hydrogen technology and the Chinese will be changing the transport world that we know today.

Bearing this in mind, the format of our IAA report will change this time around. In 2022, Dave highlighted the stands belonging to the big six in the New Zealand market. We will do that once again, of course. But we will also share some titbits of information pertaining to a handful of the Chinese exhibitors. (There were so many at this year’s IAA, we could easily fill an entire issue of New Zealand Trucking with their news. In addition to those mentioned, BYD, JAC and Shacman also exhibited.) Plus, purely because visitors were going bonkers over the Semi, we will also give Elon’s truck a quick mention…

With that background, here’s our whistle-stop tour of this year’s IAA.

DAF showed several BEVs to visitors.

DAF

DAF introduced lots of nips and tucks to its New Generation XD, XF, XG and XG+ models at the fair. The most appealing to operators are undoubtedly those that boost fuel efficiency (by a claimed 3%). This has been achieved by optimising the Paccar MX-11 and MX-13 engines (they now have new valve timing, a dual-drive coolant pump and a two-cylinder air compressor). Rear axle innovations include a new pinion design and new rear-axle ratios.

The company also exhibited its full range of XB, XD and XF Electric vehicles for city, regional and long-haul applications. The trucks have ranges of up to 500km on a single charge.

Hydrogen? Of course! DAF exhibited the Paccar MX hydrogen engine, a prototype hydrogen ICE. It is based on a modified version of the MX-13 diesel engine. The company is still developing this hydrogen combustion engine, which is expected to be ready for market launch “in the coming years”.

The Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 was named the 2025 International Truck of the Year during the IAA and was the star of the Daimler Truck stand.

A public road-approved prototype of the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck recently completed Daimler Truck’s #HydrogenRecordRun, covering 1047km using just one fill of liquid hydrogen.

DAIMLER TRUCK

The eActros 600, named the 2025 International Truck of the Year during the show, was the star of Daimler’s stand. The company came up with a rather cool concept; during the media night – which typically happens the evening before press day – it despatched the truck to Berlin to collect doughnuts for the media (we have a tough life, you know). The good news is that the truck made it back to Hanover – mit aforementioned snacks. Series production of the eActros 600 starts in November this year.

There was also lots of fanfare on the Daimler stand as Martin Daum made way for Karin Rådström, who is the company’s new chief executive officer. (Daum quipped that he didn’t want to be the Joe Biden of the truck industry.)

So, we saw electric trucks and a new CEO. What about hydrogen? The company didn’t miss the H2 boat; Daimler presented the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 truck, which recently showed that it can achieve a range of more than 1000km (during the company’s #HydrogenRecordRun). It has started initial customer trials.

Iveco pulled a hydrogen rabbit out of a hat with this exhibit.

Iveco’s new S-eWay rigid has a driving range of up to 400km and offers rapid charging capabilities that can provide 200km of additional autonomy in less than 45 minutes.

IVECO

Iveco took the media by surprise, displaying two of its BEV innovations at its pre-IAA press conference – the magnificent little eMoovy and the heavy-duty S-eWay rigid. The former – a chassis cab in the 2.5- to 3.5-tonne segment – is a joint venture with Hyundai. The latter – which has a driving range of up to 400km and offers rapid charging capabilities that can provide 200km additional in less than 45 minutes – is the rigid version of the S-eWay truck tractor. So, we were expecting to see those vehicles on its stand, and indeed we did.

Following Iveco and Nikola’s divorce, we also didn’t expect to see any Nikola vehicles on the stand – and this held true (although, of course, the S-eWay was strongly influenced by Nikola). What we were not expecting was a prototype of the S-Way equipped with a special XCursor 13L hydrogen ICE, or a hybrid heavy-duty truck concept featuring an electric axle and the Cursor 9L H2 engine range-extending system. Yet both were there in all their glory! Both engines were developed by FPT Industrial. Iveco really pulled a hydrogen-powered rabbit out of a hat!

Incidentally, FPT Industrial also showed its N67 hythane prototype, which is fuelled by a blend of hydrogen and methane. Yes. More hydrogen.

King Long is a new entrant to the Chinese heavy truck arena.

KING LONG

King Long is a Chinese company that’s more readily associated with buses. However, the amusingly named Merry Haul fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is definitely worth a mention. The hydrogen fuel cells, rated at 180kW/220kW, power a 50kWh lithium-manganese battery. The truck has two 265kW motors, and the chaps from King Long tell us it has a range of over 1000km.

MAN launched its new 12-tonne eTGL, which has a range of up to 235km. The company does not believe that the future is 100% electric. Instead, it believes that hydrogen will also play a role.

MAN

The big news over on the MAN stand was the world premiere of its new 12-tonne eTGL, which has a range of up to 235km, can be fast-charged in about 30 minutes and offers a payload of up to 6600kg (depending on the body). The introduction of this BEV means that MAN now offers electric trucks ranging from 12 to 42 tonnes.

Of course, hydrogen also featured on the MAN stand! In fact, it was another focal point of the company’s exhibit because its hydrogen combustion truck – the MAN hTGX – was named the winner of the 2025 Truck Innovation Award (New Zealand Trucking, October 2024). MAN is the first company to introduce hydrogen ICE trucks (they will be in series production shortly, and the first customers will get them early next year). The MAN hTGX will be available in 6×2 and 6×4 axle configurations, and it has a maximum range of up to 600km.

BEVs were the name of the game on the Scania stand.

SCANIA

Scania’s exhibit was themed the “Future Energy Hub” – and, judging by the company’s display, it believes that BEVs represent the most important future technology. The company repeated the theme of the 2022 IAA, with BEVs dominating its display. Its latest models feature a significant increase in range – up to 400km on the urban version and up to 370km on the regional model, thanks to 624kWh or 416kWh battery configurations.

The stand wasn’t exclusively about BEVs, though. One of the other highlights of its exhibit was the diesel-powered Super 460R. Specifically, it features Scania’s advanced 13L inline-six diesel engine, which is part of the new Super range.

Sinotruk launched its Yellow River X7, which has a hydrogen ICE.

SINOTRUK

We were blown away at the size of the Sinotruk stand; it was huge. It wasn’t just impressive thanks to its size, though. There were also many fascinating vehicles on display. The most eye-catching was undoubtedly the Yellow River X7 4×2 truck tractor, which – thanks to its super-cool design – attracted lots of staring visitors. Both the tractor and trailer featured a droplet-like shape, significantly reducing the drag coefficient to 0.286, which – according to Sinotruk – is 40% lower than that of comparable trucks. This aerodynamic efficiency translates into energy savings of up to 10%, positioning the Yellow River X7 as an efficient option in its class.

The Yellow River X7 has a hydrogen ICE, which delivers 530hp (395kW) and 2700Nm of torque, offering a range of over 800km. Additionally, the model is available with a diesel engine, and Sinotruk reports that this truck recently set a Guinness World Record for the longest distance driven on a single tank, covering a staggering 4871km. (No, we have no clue how they did that.)

The third-generation Black Diamond BEV was also shown.

SuperPanther’s eTopas 600 BEV was developed in collaboration with Steyr.

SUPERPANTHER

Now this was a super-interesting Chinese stand – because of its speed to market. SuperPanther Power Technology, which specialises in heavy-electric trucks, was founded by a chap called Chao Liu in early 2022. That’s not so long ago, huh? It had two impressive-looking trucks on the stand – the eTopas 600 BEV, developed in collaboration with Steyr, and the third-generation Black Diamond BEV, an intelligent drive-by-wire skateboard chassis, plus its very own e-axle. Remember that the company was only conceived two years ago. Its speed of bringing products to market is either impressive or scary. You decide.

There was massive interest in the Tesla Semi.

TESLA

It was fascinating to see two things at the 2024 IAA: the excitement of the visitors on seeing the Semi in the metal and the complete disinterest of the American journos who were there. There’s a wonderfully descriptive word in South Africa, which has no rival. The word is ‘gatvol’ [gh-ut-fall] and it means that someone is completely tired of a situation. Chatting to the American writers, it was evident that they are uniformly gatvol with Tesla – because of a complete lack of information. “We don’t know if Tesla has sold a dozen trucks. Maybe they’ve sold a maximum of 100. We also don’t have a lot of specific technical details about the trucks. But, quite frankly, we don’t care,” one clearly gatvol writer told us.

Information wasn’t really very forthcoming at the fair either – all that we established (via a dear mate) was that the standard range version (500km) weighs up to 9000kg and the long-range (800km) version weighs up to 10,500kg. However, the lack of info clearly didn’t deter the visitors, who happily queued for ages to sit inside the Semi.

Volvo did show BEVs on its stand – but not exclusively … Hydrogen for fuel-cell applications and hydrogen in combustion engines are being developed in parallel to future-proof Volvo’s truck range for all markets.

VOLVO

This year, Volvo didn’t focus exclusively on EVs. Yes, of course, they were there – but ‘finding the ICE’ was certainly possible this time around. In fact, you couldn’t really miss it – because, somewhat surprisingly, Volvo chose to display its enormous Class 8 VNL, launched in North America earlier this year (see page 78). The model in question was the VNL 860, which is powered by the latest-generation D13 engine that is said to deliver improved fuel efficiency, performance and durability. The D13 engine is available in four horsepower ratings, ranging from 302 to 373kW (405 to 500hp) and three torque ratings from 2372 to 2644Nm (1750 to 1950lb/ft).

In keeping with the H2 trend at the 2024 IAA, Volvo’s fuel-cell test truck was also on display. The truck is part of a collaboration between Volvo and Daimler under the cellcentric joint venture, which focuses on developing hydrogen fuel cells for heavy-duty vehicles. This new system generates over 500hp (375kW) and is designed to fit into the same space as a traditional 13L diesel engine.

This is the Windrose. Really. Promise. It is not the Tesla Semi.

WINDROSE

Finally, our report would be incomplete without mention of the Windrose (no, it’s not the Tesla Semi). We took a pre-production model for a spin during the fair, and it’s a hoot to drive. As per the Tesla Semi, the driver is seated in the middle of the cab (which actually feels rather nice). It has a 729kWh battery, a 670km full load range (49-tonne gross weight) and peak output power of 1400hp (1044kW). As we reported in the August 2024 issue, expect to see it in New Zealand next year (we told you that the Chinese move fast).

Charleen Clarke is editorial director of South Africa’s FOCUS on Transport magazine. She represents South Africa on the International Truck of the Year jury, and judges the Truck Innovation Award and Truck of the Year Australasia – and has been writing about trucks for longer than she cares to admit.