Summer 2025 has put hydrogen back in the fast lane. A 17-member consortium under the EU-funded H2Haul project has begun running 40-tonne fuel-cell tractor-trailers on real, daily line-haul work across Germany and neighbouring states, giving logistics managers their first sustained look at how the technology copes with the grind of motorway freight. Here is what the first weeks on the road reveal.
A Multi-Partner Push: Inside the 2025 Trial
H2Haul pools truck makers IVECO, suppliers like Bosch, logistics giants DHL Freight and BMW Group Logistics, and energy players including Air Liquide. Two IVECO S-eWay Fuel Cell tractors entered service in late June, shuttling parts between DHL’s Landsberg hub and BMW’s Leipzig plant. They are the first of 16 heavy-duty units the consortium plans to spread across eight EU countries by 2026. The initiative is backed by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and national transport ministries, which cover a share of the vehicle and station investment in exchange for anonymised performance data that will feed into upcoming CO₂-standards reviews.
Real-World Numbers: Range, Payload, and Refuelling
Early telematics show each 40-tonne tractor is averaging 700 km of mixed autobahn and ring-road driving per tank, with peak single-shift stretches nudging 750 km. Refuelling – at 350 bar for these prototypes – takes roughly 25 minutes, including safety checks, before the trucks roll back out at their full 38-tonne payload rating. Crews report that the fuel-cell stack delivers hill-climb torque comparable to a modern 13-litre diesel, while the absence of engine vibration has cut driver-fatigue complaints on the Landsberg-Leipzig leg.
Where to Fill Up: The New Heavy-Duty Hydrogen Stations
Keeping the rigs rolling depends on a parallel build-out of truck-class refuelling depots. Two dedicated stations went live this spring on BMW’s Leipzig campus and at Hormersdorf services on the A72, both sized for 40 fills a day to support the pilot trucks plus visiting test fleets. Beyond Saxony, H2 Mobility opened Europe’s most powerful public hydrogen station on Düsseldorf’s Höherweg in May; its five-tonne-per-day output and triple-nozzle design let three artics refuel simultaneously at 350, 500, or 700 bar. Further south, HRS commissioned a one-tonne-per-day “HRS40” dispenser in Saint-Sulpice, Occitania, tying the French Mediterranean corridor into the emerging network.
The Elephant in the Cab: Costs Still Climb
Performance is only half the equation. At today’s market rates, Europe’s green hydrogen costs €7.7-9.6 /kg, leaving a fully loaded truck paying close to €350 to match a 1,000-km diesel run. Norwegian ship operator Höegh, which plans to crack imported ammonia into hydrogen at Lubmin from 2027, says delivered fuel will need to drop to about €3.2/kg before hauliers see parity. Vehicle costs remain steep too: experts note fuel-cell tractors are “expensive and complicated to build”, with a far narrower supplier base than battery-electric drivelines – one reason analysts at the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight doubt they can undercut BEVs on total cost of ownership this decade.
Roadmap to Scale
Consortium engineers argue that the numbers will improve quickly once volumes rise. Stack makers aim to double durability to 60,000 hours by 2028, trimming lease rates, while next-generation 700-bar tanks could push real-world range past 1,000 km – already demonstrated by Daimler’s GenH2 prototypes – without enlarging the chassis. On the infrastructure side, H2Haul members plan to seed at least ten additional truck-grade stations along the Antwerp–Rotterdam-Duisburg and Munich-Verona corridors by the end of 2026, creating contiguous stretches where hydrogen haulage can compete directly with diesel on uptime. Whether falling electrolyser costs, supportive road tolls, and tightening CO₂ caps can close the price gap fast enough is still uncertain, but the summer trial shows the technology itself is ready to shoulder motorway duty. The next 18 months will reveal if the business case can catch up just as quickly.