Funding granted by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership of €30m (£26m), will enable hydrogen trucks and refuelling equipment to be tested under real-world conditions.
The project is a collaboration between Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, 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.
It 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.
Bart Biebuyck, executive director of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, said: “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.
“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 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 372 miles.