Europe’s H2Accelerate collaboration has received €30 million euros in funding to deploy 150 hydrogen trucks and eight heavy-duty hydrogen refuelling stations. The initiatives fall under the Connecting Europe Facility and Clean Hydrogen Partnership, and will enable trucks and refuelling equipment to be tested under real-world conditions. Results from the project will be used to set the scene for large scale fuel cell truck deployment in the coming years.
The H2Accelerate TRUCKS project is an innovative collaboration among Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, and Iveco Group, Finnish research institution VTT, International Road Transport Union (IRU), Romanian National Union of Road Transporters (UNTRR), Italian (Federazione Italiana Autotrasportatori Professionali – FIAP), Austrian (WKÖ) associations, and Element Energy France (an ERM Group company). The project will be coordinated by SINTEF, Norway’s leading research institute on hydrogen technologies. H2Accelerate TRUCKS is also supported by energy infrastructure providers, including Shell, TotalEnergies, and Everfuel.
This project will fund the deployment of 150 fuel cell trucks across Europe by the mid-to-late 2020s, allowing development of the technology towards series manufacturing of the vehicles by the three major OEMs in the second half of the decade. The trucks to be deployed in the first stage are expected to be either 4×2 or 6×2, with up to 44 tonne capacity and long ranges of at least 600km.
The funding granted by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership of €30M will enable the coordinated roll-out of heavy-duty, zero-emission vehicles fuelled by green hydrogen, bringing zero emission targets for transport closer. The trucks will be deployed with customers of the OEMs and tested in real world conditions over several years in order to demonstrate and assess their technical and economic performance.
“We are delighted to provide funding support to the H2Accelerate TRUCKS project, a flagship project which will pave the way for the commercialisation of Europe’s hydrogen trucking system,” said Bart Biebuyck, executivedDirector of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.
“It is especially auspicious that these 150 vehicles deployed within this project will be supported by an expanding network of hydrogen refuelling stations, which will include the H2Accelerate Inaugural Station Deployment project that has been selected to receive EU funding support. “Through both projects, we can witness first-hand how different funding programmes can work together to accelerate the realisation of a hydrogen trucking ecosystem in Europe.”
The funding is expected to enable the synchronised deployment of both heavy-duty vehicles and refuelling infrastructure, removing the barrier to first mover action commonly linked to complex projects such as these. This will contribute to a growing network of funded projects propelling the hydrogen value chain.
Through the H2Accelerate collaboration, the technology, geography, and timescales of fuel cell truck and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure can be synchronised, providing security of supply for end users and de-risking the necessary large-scale investments for OEMs and infrastructure providers alike. This will enable the development of relevant technologies and standards, paving the way for the wider roll-out of hydrogen trucks throughout Europe and the eventual industrialisation of the hydrogen trucking sector.
