Welcome to the “Green Kilometer” Revolution

When most people think of green mobility, they think of electric cars. The average truck, however, pollutes far more than the average automobile.  

This makes the transition to electric trucks a priority in the fight against climate change. Unfortunately, when it comes to switching to e-mobility, logistics companies face hurdles that car owners do not.  

With a range of a few hundred kilometers, electric trucks must interrupt their runs frequently and wait (sometimes hours) while the battery recharges. This is not viable in an industry where speed of delivery is paramount. Charging stations can also be hard to find, which can affect truck routing. 

The good news is that all of this is about to change. 

“Hydrogen fuel cells powered by green methanol can solve the problems of transitioning to electric trucks, and in a carbon neutral way,” says David Marchand, CEO of Roxpay. “A hydrogen fuel cell can extend a truck’s range to over 1,000 kilometers, equal to or even better than conventional trucks. More importantly, these batteries don’t need to be recharged by cable. You simply pump methanol into them the same way you pump gasoline into an internal combustion engine, and at the same gas stations. This eliminates most barriers to adoption.”  

Bringing the green kilometer to market 

Because it is now possible to produce “green methanol” (methanol made in a carbon-neutral way), and because the infrastructure to do so is now ready in Europe, Marchand says the technology is in place for a green revolution in the transportation sector. That only leaves getting the economics right. 

“Our company is part of a group here in Switzerland that is bringing this green transportation revolution to market in a way that is economically very interesting for logistics companies,” Marchand explains. The solution involves three distinct innovations.  

One partner, WhiteCell Power, has developed a novel method to 3D print the bipolar plates that are at the heart of hydrogen fuel cells. This dramatically reduces the price and increases the quality of these cells.  

Nexmobility is fitting out electric trucks with the new cells and making them available on a pay-per-use basis. This allows logistics companies to make the switch without heavy up-front expenses.  

Roxpay, which specializes in pay-per-use solutions, takes care of the kilometer tracking and payments, making administration both transparent and user-friendly.  

“The pay-per-use angle is an important part of this story,” Marchand adds. “Thanks to this capability, the logistics companies don’t have to invest in new or modified trucks. They can in effect lease them from us and pay only for the kilometers they drive.” 

The tricky part is managing that usage.  

“Obviously, to be economical a pay-per-use infrastructure needs to be transparent, trustworthy and automated. By using blockchain, we can deliver all these capabilities.”  

Right now Marchand says Roxpay uses the blockchain as a shared database to record the kilometers travelled in a way that is transparent and trustworthy for all parties involved. In future, it intends to offer blockchain-based solutions for automated payments. It is also looking at DeFi approaches to facilitate investment in the overall platform, though this is farther down the line. 

Getting in on the green 

Marchand and his partners believe they have set the stage for a real, practical revolution in green mobility. The final step is to make this revolution available to as many investors as they can.  

That is where GenTwo comes in. 

“We were in talks with GenTwo and said, ‘why don’t we create an AMC where the investor gets access to all three companies in this ecosystem, and make it easy and accessible for investors, even those who only want to invest say 10k, not necessarily a million’,” he explains.  

For Marchand, the GenTwo platform has provided the icing on the cake. 

“GenTwo made it very easy for us to make this opportunity available to a wide range of investors. It doesn’t happen very often in Switzerland that you have the chance to invest in such a life-changing development.”