A group of eight companies has set out a joint plan to speed up the rollout of hydrogen-powered trucks across Europe, using Germany as the launch market. The members are Volvo Group, Daimler Truck, Toyota Motor Corporation, Bosch, Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, TEAL Mobility and MB Energy. They say Germany now has the conditions in place to deploy hydrogen trucks at scale by 2030, supported by national authorities and companies across the value chain.

Daimler Truck said its customers have already driven almost 600,000km in its fuel cell trucks. Its next step is a small series of 100 next-generation fuel cell trucks, which will go into customer operations from the end of 2026. Its first hydrogen combustion engine trucks are being prepared for launch next year, and the company plans to invest a mid-three-digit million euro sum in hydrogen trucks by the end of the decade.

Volvo Group is developing both fuel cell and hydrogen combustion trucks, with market launch targeted towards 2030. Toyota will take part as a technology partner, drawing on three decades of fuel cell development. Bosch will supply vehicle components for gaseous hydrogen as well as refuelling technology for both liquid and gaseous hydrogen.

On the infrastructure side, the energy partners are working towards large, high-throughput refuelling stations able to serve up to 100 trucks a day. The group said hydrogen haulage can compete with diesel through three levers: lower truck costs supported by incentives, a cheaper hydrogen supply chain backed by greenhouse gas quota mechanisms, and toll relief for zero-emission vehicles.