Why bring hydrogen players together on a digital platform?

“From 2022, we wanted to bring together all the bricks in the value chain and the players needed to deploy hydrogen mobility in a single catalogue, to facilitate the energy transition for players in heavy and intensive mobility (service station operators, fleet managers, for example). We have listed the products and services available on the market, for which our “partners” – selected for the quality of their offer and their ability to make an active and significant contribution to decarbonisation – have agreed to regularly update their information.

We now have over 50 partners, with 55 companies, including the biggest names in the H2 mobility sector, like Stellantis, GCK Mobility, Hylane, Hyvia, Hexagon, HRS, and EODev, who represent over 80% of this market (we focus particularly on heavy and intensive road mobility). These partners offer over 110 pieces of equipment and services available in Europe, covering the entire value chain. This includes 27 vehicles, 31 refuelling systems, 9 electric generators and 37 other solutions and services (full list provided at end of press release).”

Together, these 55 partners offer at least one solution for each H2 mobility use.

How do you see the hydrogen mobility market evolving?

“From 2022, we wanted to bring together all the bricks in the value chain and the players needed to deploy hydrogen mobility in a single catalogue, to facilitate the energy transition for players in heavy and intensive mobility (service station operators, fleet managers, for example). We have listed the products and services available on the market, for which our “partners” – selected for the quality of their offer and their ability to make an active and significant contribution to decarbonisation – have agreed to regularly update their information.

We now have over 50 partners, with 55 companies, including the biggest names in the H2 mobility sector, like Stellantis, GCK Mobility, Hylane, Hyvia, Hexagon, HRS, and EODev, who represent over 80% of this market (we focus particularly on heavy and intensive road mobility). These partners offer over 110 pieces of equipment and services available in Europe, covering the entire value chain. This includes 27 vehicles, 31 refuelling systems, 9 electric generators and 37 other solutions and services (full list provided at end of press release).”

Together, these 55 partners offer at least one solution for each H2 mobility use.

How do you see the hydrogen mobility market evolving?

“From a supply perspective, all the building blocks in the value chain already exist, and some of them, such as light commercial vehicles, are already beginning to be industrialised. These systems and solutions are being deployed more and more widely in Europe, particularly in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands.

The first use cases with a sustainable business model have been developed for captive fleets (i.e. a large number of taxis, buses, light commercial vehicles, etc. refuelling at the same point). These players use hydrogen for their own business with an on-site refuelling station (e.g. forklifts at Lidl France), or for fleets part of an integrated H2 mobility solution, e.g. Hylane, Hyliko, or Hysetco which has built eight H2 stations, initially to refuel its fleet of leased taxis in France. These first stations are also opening up to other users, thus increasing supply, creating a network of stations and generating demand.

Developments by type of vehicle:

All the major European vehicle manufacturers now have hydrogen models in their range, or have announced at least one. Several of them have already begun the pre-serial production phase and say they are ready to launch production lines.

After light vehicles for captive fleets, light commercial vehicles are arriving on the market with the launch of mass production: Stellantis announced that it will start mass production in 2025 and plans to reach a production capacity of 100,000 commercial vehicles by 2030. In 2024, by switching to integrated production on a single assembly line for all the energies on offer, the manufacturer managed to halve the price of its vans to around €71,500 before VAT.
Buses and coaches also account for a significant proportion of hydrogen demand. They are particularly well developed in Germany (approx. 150), France (approx. 50) and the Netherlands. Spain this year confirmed the largest order for H2 buses (36) for the city of Barcelona. Depending on the country, bus fleets will be developed to a greater or lesser extent depending on the energy requirements of the routes (i.e. length and frequency of trips and range of running times).
Heavy-duty H2 trucks will be the biggest users of hydrogen. They represent a major lever for decarbonisation (they account for around 25% of total transport-related CO2 emissions in Europe), but their deployment, initially scheduled for around 2025, is now expected in 2030. These vehicles designed for long distances are dependent on the refuelling infrastructure in the areas and countries they cover, and on EU funding mechanisms and coordination. Nevertheless, there are already examples in the market of the development of this type of heavy mobility around the first sources of green H2 production:
- In Switzerland, Hyundai’s fleet of 48 hydrogen fuel cell HGVs has covered 10 million kilometres in under four years. The fleet is fuelled by locally produced green hydrogen, and as the Swiss Heavy Vehicle Fee (LSVA) does not apply to zero-emission trucks, this balances out the transport costs per km.
- In Germany, Hylane has deployed around fifty H2 trucks this year, and will quickly reach 150 vehicles. As for KEYOU, the H2 combustion engine truck specialist, it plans to put around a hundred trucks into service between 2026 and 2030, starting in the south of the country, based on Lhyfe’s planned green hydrogen production capacity in Baden-Württemberg and the network of stations provided by H2 MOBILITY Deutschland and MINT.

As far as manufacturers are concerned, Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility is the market leader, with around 150 vehicles on the road (available to buy direct or through Hyundai’s partners Hyliko and Hylane). IVECO, Volvo and Daimler are currently launching pre-series tests, and last September MAN announced that it will launch the production 200 pre-series vehicles in 2025. The industry leaders are expected to start mass production at the end of the decade, and with the planned ramp-up, hydrogen vehicles are expected to account for around 10-15% of their sales by early 2030.

To support this roll-out, we are seeing the development of the OEM sector, which is massively industrialising its fuel cell and hydrogen tank production facilities (Toyota, Symbio, Cellcentric, PlasticOmnium). The solutions and services sector is also expanding, with maintenance services for hydrogen service stations, risk analyses for hydrogen installations, regulatory advice services, and so on. All these solutions and services are necessary to develop the sector and help manufacturers gain expertise in an energy they have not used until now.

Finally, Europe’s first renewable green hydrogen production sites are emerging, making clean hydrogen available at competitive prices, and the projects for such sites are growing. As a reminder, H2 mobility makes sense from an ecological point of view only if the hydrogen used has been produced cleanly, i.e. by electrolysis of water and from renewable electricity, and not from fossil fuels.”

What are the challenges facing the industry as it continues to develop?

“We live in an age where we are used to the instantaneous. We seem to have forgotten that it takes at least 10 years to develop a new industry. We must recognise that in just four years, the green hydrogen industry has rapidly become established. Europe now has all the components it needs for clean mobility. If we want to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, we need to coordinate our efforts to accelerate and trigger the much-awaited scale up.

Ideally, the industry would benefit from better coordination between the various decarbonisation objectives, regulations and incentives that apply to each of the stakeholders (producers, vehicle manufacturers, operators, customers), in Europe and in each of the Member States. Individually, these objectives exist and each is moving in the right direction.

In France alone, 15 French or European regulations are likely to have an impact on the decarbonisation of heavy-duty mobility:

Manufacturers of heavy commercial vehicles must reduce the CO2 emissions of the vehicles they sell by 45% by 2030, and 90% by 2040;
Road transport will be subject to the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2027;
By 2030, member States will have to achieve a minimum share of 1% of RFNBO fuels and ensure that a service station suitable for heavy goods vehicles is available every 200 km on major European roads (AFIR).

But these objectives need to be better coordinated, with clearer targeting, a solid regulatory framework and more sustainable incentives, so that the entire value chain has the same vision of the market, and is part of the same ambitious dynamic. All this may take years, but this is time we don’t have.

In order to move forward quickly and concretely, the European Union can today make up for this inconsistency by structurally boosting demand. We need a massive European programme that supports vehicle acquisition and hydrogen use by covering part of the extra cost. This programme needs to run for a sufficiently long period to build market confidence and trigger massive investment decisions by vehicle buyers. To achieve this, we need to go fast and hard, with stable amounts, and within a known timeframe. This stimulus will speed up industrialisation and the progressive fall in costs, gradually reducing the industry’s need for support.
And, of course, we must maintain high standards for the production of green, renewable hydrogen: the European Union and governments must continue to direct their subsidies towards the production of green, renewable hydrogen, and not towards solutions that involve the continued use of fossil fuels.

Where does the debate between hydrogen and battery electric power for mobility stand?

“At Lhyfe, there is no such debate. To address our energy transition challenges, we need a multitude of solutions, solutions that meet every need, and for which there is the right energy infrastructure.

Unlike fossil fuels, which have been deployed everywhere indiscriminately, the new energy mix now requires us to ask the question of use and the type of vehicle concerned. We know that hydrogen is an effective solution for a range of uses and heavy and/or intensive mobility profiles that battery-electric vehicle cannot cater for, for example, intensive uses requiring a long range, heavy loads, or extreme conditions (extreme cold or heat). To achieve the goal of 100% zero-emission vehicles, hydrogen is a necessary part of the solution.

Even if a use case appears more suited to battery electric, the question of energy infrastructure must be asked: we need to take into account the capacity of the network to manage – or not – such heavy recharges, in a systemic way (beyond even the question of the cost and time required to deploy recharging stations). Where the network is already severely constrained, green hydrogen is a complementary solution that can be deployed more quickly and at a lower cost, to overcome the limitations of the electricity network and meet the needs of vehicle operators.

It is clear that we are going to need both electric batteries AND hydrogen, and that this complementarity makes sense from both an ecological and an economic point of view. We must therefore continue to develop renewable electricity and hydrogen mobility, in particular through this massive demand support mechanism. This effort will pay off – by addressing the uses that are the hardest to decarbonise, we are tackling the majority of transport-related emissions; the cost per tonne of CO2 saved is well worth it.”

Figures and amounts from manufacturers and Lhyfe’s internal monitoring.

Equipment, services and partners listed in the Lhyfe Heroes catalogue:

Vehicles: 22 models available from 17 manufacturers and solution providers (Stellantis, Hyvia, Watéa, Keyou, Hyliko, Hylane, Peugeot, Opel, Citroën, CaetanoBus, Safra, GCK Mobility, CMAR, Manitou, Incitis, Genevos and Ephyra). 9 light commercial vehicle models, 3 coaches, 5 heavy goods vehicles, 2 buses, 1 refuse collection vehicles, 1 telescopic handler, and 1 car carrier truck.
Refuelling equipment: 31 solutions from 15 suppliers (Atawey, ANGI, Dover Fueling Solutions, Hexagon Purus, HRS, PRF Gas Solutions, Madic Group, Cetil Dispensing Solutions, Hyvia, GCK Energy, Resato, Mesure Process and Hyliko).
Electric generators: 9 models available from 6 suppliers (EOdev, GCK Energy, Powidian, GRZ Technologies, zepp.solutions and Watermeln).

Solutions and services (consulting, engineering, digital solutions and applications): 37 solutions offered by 17 suppliers (Atmen, FillnDrive, Edgar Software, Moviatech, ConsulTruck, Moviatech, ACE Energie, Cratos Gmbh, Gecos, Kanda consulting, ODZ Consultants, Groupe Egis, Cratos Gmbh, ULEMCo, Azor Energy, Apave, Seres Techologies and Synops Conseil).

BlueScope and Shell Join Forces to Develop Renewable Hydrogen Projects in the Illawarra