Large scale deployment project to accelerate the uptake of Hydrogen Trucks in Europe

150 trucks from three European truck OEMs, the Volvo Group, Daimler AG and IVECO will be deployed across eight EU member states. Each company, will develop and deploy 41-44 tonne articulated trucks which are specified for the longest haul operation (ranges over 600km). The trucks will be deployed with over 20 truck operators and operate in a wide range conditions and day-to-day operations across 8 European member states.

The trucks will operate on a new network of high throughput hydrogen refuelling stations, designed specifically for trucks (installed by Shell, OMV, TOTAL, Everfuel and Linde). These will be installed to cover the major TEN-T transport corridors from North to South Europe, with an initial focus on the regions where the vehicles are manufactured (to enable the high level of on-road support that the OEMs’ customers rely on). The stations will be supplied using green hydrogen from a network of 8 new large electrolysers producing green hydrogen consistent with RED II requirements, with associated Guarantees of Origin.

The project will create an extensive technical, economic and attitudinal dataset which proves the viability of hydrogen as a solution to decarbonising road freight. This will be analysed by research partners, SINTEF, VTT and Element Energy to create easily interpreted public report on the performance of the fleet. The results will be disseminated to an audience of: policy makers (to encourage policy change to favour hydrogen truck deployment), truck operators (to enable future uptake) and the wider hydrogen industry (to underpin supply chain investment).

These activities will contribute to accelerating the rate and scale of uptake of hydrogen fuelled vehicles in Europe, preparing the policy, fuelling network and end user acceptance for the first series production of these OEM vehicles (at the scale of 1,000’s per year per OEM) from as early as 2026 and full industrialisation (10,000’s per year per OEM) around 2030.