Analysis of Alternative Fuel Technologies Impact on Heavy-Duty Vehicles Manufacturing Process

Current environmental situation requires reduction of all human activities that have heavy impacts on our planet. A considerable part of pollution comes from transportation, that produces about one fourth of total carbon dioxide, main source of greenhouse effect. This condition has required to switch vehicles fuels toward cleaner options as natural gas, electricity and hydrogen. This paper aims to analyze which are the impacts of alternative fuel vehicles on the production process by examining four versions of a semi-truck. IVECO S-Way in its native diesel and optional natural gas versions have been modified in a joint venture effort with NIKOLA Motor Company in order to become a Battery Electric Vehicle and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. This project is called NIKOLA TRE and shares same mechanics and cabin with IVECO truck accompanied by obvious differences in propulsion system. As a starting point, manufacturing process of diesel version has been analyzed in order to spot differences with the one of natural gas vehicle. Main distinction is related to management and assembly of tanks, as well as vehicle testing procedure. Analogous study has been performed on electric and hydrogen variants by focusing on specific processes and components. Management of high voltage elements is the main issue of the BEV version since may have significant repercussions on safety of workers and final customers. For what concerns the process, main changes are present in assembly shop, where batteries, drivetrain and harness impose new requirements. FCEV production introduces serious differences with respect to other variants. Hydrogen is a hazardous substance that requires serious safety countermeasures during vehicle manufacturing. In particular, cabin manufacturing must be changed as well as the assembly and final testing processes. The dissertation analyses implications on vehicle industrialization and proposes solutions to completely new challenges. In other terms, this work provides real guidelines to management of new technologies in production. In fact, it is clear that new propulsion systems impose many variations to processes, but do not generate any blocking issue.