ExpectedOutcome:Hydrogen has proven to be the alternative to conventional ICE operated on fossil fuels, especially for long range and flexible zero emission (ZE) Heavy-Duty (HD) mobility, where direct electrification with large batteries cannot meet the intensive usage and payload requirements. Large scale fleet deployments and operations are needed. Wheels on the roads, operated by different operators in different EU markets and geography, providing insight on relevant business cases for potential buyers, and then the respective refuelling infrastructure in order to guarantee the long-haul distance are needed.

Hydrogen mobility currently is not always perceived as a viable zero emission alternative against ICE and BEV. Allowing relevant fleet owners and operators to experience first-hand the technology would play an important role in changing this perception of the technology. Furthermore, their lighthouse function will set an example for many other potential end-users, who can benefit from the experience of the ‘front-runners’. Next to this, the parallel introduction of multiple fleets throughout a variety of operations, in multiple EU Member States, will increase th... ver más

ExpectedOutcome:Hydrogen has proven to be the alternative to conventional ICE operated on fossil fuels, especially for long range and flexible zero emission (ZE) Heavy-Duty (HD) mobility, where direct electrification with large batteries cannot meet the intensive usage and payload requirements. Large scale fleet deployments and operations are needed. Wheels on the roads, operated by different operators in different EU markets and geography, providing insight on relevant business cases for potential buyers, and then the respective refuelling infrastructure in order to guarantee the long-haul distance are needed.

Hydrogen mobility currently is not always perceived as a viable zero emission alternative against ICE and BEV. Allowing relevant fleet owners and operators to experience first-hand the technology would play an important role in changing this perception of the technology. Furthermore, their lighthouse function will set an example for many other potential end-users, who can benefit from the experience of the ‘front-runners’. Next to this, the parallel introduction of multiple fleets throughout a variety of operations, in multiple EU Member States, will increase the credibility of hydrogen as a commercial alternative. For this to happen it is necessary to break through the current vicious circle (small quantities because of high prices and high prices because of small quantities).

This flagship[1] topic aims to address all of the aspects above mentioned via the deployment of a large fleet of fuel cell HDV across several countries and use cases.

Current research shows that boosting economies of scale on the short term, will enable hydrogen to become economically feasible as from 2025. In this sense this project represents a critical step in that direction. It will initiate and substantially accelerate the initial cost reduction of fuel cells trucks by enabling the relevant supply chains to reach critical mass, which in turn will accelerate the attainment of the Total Costs of Ownership (TCO) competitiveness.

As enabler, heavy-duty, long-haul truck has proven to be the ideal market-segment for doing this. It is often forgotten that the market size, combined with the total energy consumption, and a high potential to generate (concentrated) vehicle fleets, provides the ideal situation to function as a flywheel for other markets. Current market research is expecting 100,000 vehicles in 2030 and growing to >100,000 hydrogen trucks per year (representing 25-30% of the yearly truck sales). The end goal is to make hydrogen for Heavy-Duty applications economical viable without funding’s in the next 5-10 years.

In earlier programs the feasibility of hydrogen in distribution trucks was demonstrated (H2Share[2] 27 tonne and Hydrogen Region 2.0[3] 44 tonne truck). The FCH JU funded H2Haul[4] project intends to upscale the tractor truck to long haul operation along defined corridors near the operator.

In total 16 trucks will be deployed in the H2Haul project. As seen in comparable markets, such as public transport, a logical transition step for operators is to start with a demonstrator, then move to a small series and towards a first fleet of 20 to 40 vehicles, before they have fully embraced the technology as a ‘normal’ alternative. These single fleets will drive the OEM and suppliers forward as they need to work in parallel to be able to provide the right product and service proposition. To this end, the FCH JU funded StasHH[4] project aims to define a standardised fuel cell module in order to facilitate growth and economy of scale.

Therefore, the next step (before hydrogen trucks can be delivered at large scale in the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI projects) are the flagships projects: allowing the truck agglomerates (OEM) to have a hydrogen truck ready for sale in limited numbers and to integrate the hydrogen truck as platform in their product line and service organisation. Furthermore, the data collected in such a flagship project is key to allow truck manufacturers and transport companies to strengthen and validate the operational and financial viability of hydrogen trucks for daily operation.

A critical success factor is the network of HRS to ensure the hydrogen refill demand is available on the route showing the hydrogen trucks long haul capabilities along major transport corridors throughout Europe. In addition, a truck refuelling market could enable a faster deployment of HRS and a lower price of hydrogen delivered thanks to higher volume associated than when solely supplying light duty vehicles.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

Economy of Scale for all hydrogen components, and as a result demonstrate a significant decrease in TCO per tonne per km by truck OEM, HRS operators and transport companies working together, making heavy-duty hydrogen trucks operationally and financially viable;Increase in sales of the total volume of trucks as similar TCO decreases can be expected in other markets and applications (e.g.: refrigerating trucks);Contribute to the expansion of the hydrogen truck service network and HRS network through Europe and along the TEN-T core and comprehensive network. This should require OEM agreement to mitigate the risk of creating stranded assets and to concentrate resources;The creation of a competitive offering of several models of hydrogen trucks (from different truck OEM) and creating added value for the European Industry;Promote hydrogen trucks and refuelling as an operationally and financially viable alternative for BEV trucks and biofuels, contributing to the resolution of a maximum scope of technological (e.g. lifetime and durability, HRS/truck compatibility), operational (e.g. driving range, payload capacity, refuelling time), regulatory (e.g. tax exemptions and incentives), and financial challenges (TCO), making hydrogen trucks operationally and financially viable for transport companies in Europe;Comparison of the different zero emission trucks on performance, range, environment, TCO, etc;Gathering of relevant technical and financial data in different conditions from truck operation: range, speed-, load profile, refuelling time and the supply of hydrogen: (public) pipeline network, tube trailer (different pressures), local electrolysis etc;Providing a growing market that becomes increasingly interesting for competition between hydrogen component suppliers and enabling the transition from job shop and batch manufacturing towards mass production of hydrogen trucks and HRS;Demonstrate the implementation/feasibility of harmonised legislation extended to HD trucks (UN R134) by the main truck OEM in Europe;Strong dissemination and awareness program, involving a maximum number of transport and logistic companies;Fostering innovative truck operator business models lowering the financial, operational and technological risk barrier for transport and logistics companies to adopt hydrogen trucks. Strengthening global competitiveness of European truck OEM in the heavy-duty truck segments;As international operation is foreseen, a broad spectrum of use cases is covered (climate, road conditions, daily operations);Limit the cost per truck below EUR 450,000. In addition, it is also expected to see the cost of trucks decrease throughout the duration of the action. OEM in the project should monitor and report on the cost evolution. Hydrogen will be one of the dominant solutions enabling Horizon Europe to contribute to a more liveable and Carbon neutral Europe towards 2050. The ‘Hydrogen Economy’ (Users and Suppliers) will benefit from the approach of this proposal. This flagship project on hydrogen trucks will contribute to this by the fact that developments will shift from technology into applications (EU wide) and thus will accelerate the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel. This will result in the critical reduction of costs in order for Hydrogen to settle as an operationally and financially viable alternative to ICE and BEV. The end goal is to make hydrogen for Heavy-Duty applications economical viable without funding’s in the next 5-10 years.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:

Availability of trucks: 90%;Average consumption of trucks: proposals should specify their targets, and it is encouraged to go for under 10 kg/100km for the 38-40 tonnes range;Kilometres driven during the project: Long haul: 60,000 km/year/truck;Distribution: 40,000 km/year/truck; Each truck should be operated for a minimum of 2 years;Range for 50% of the trucks > 600km Hydrogen Refuelling Infrastructure (HRS)

It is expected that the refuelling infrastructure accompanying the fleet of trucks to deployed in the project should be in line with the guidelines of the proposal for a regulation on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure 2021/0223(COD)[6], in particular:

One HRS every 150 km (or every 450 km in case of LH2) on both core and comprehensive TEN-T network and in each urban node[7]Ability to refuel at 350 & 700 bar, minimum capacity of 2 t/day In addition:

HRS availability: 95%;Refuelling operation: 6 kg/min @700 barThe inclusion of HRS allowing refuelling under 10 minutes for Liquid Hydrogen (LH2); is encouraged;
Scope:To produce and operate a minimum of at least 150 homologated fuel cells hydrogen trucks, including a service/maintenance/dealer/parts network along defined comprehensive TEN-T[8] corridors throughout Europe and to operate them supported by a backbone of HRS for a minimum of 2 years, all of the following actions should be addressed in the proposals:

Minimum 150 hydrogen trucks delivered by at least 3 different truck OEM (not part of the same group), with a minimum of 20 trucks per OEM cluster. The cost per truck should remain under EUR 450,000€, unless properly justified and a short term path to achieve the cost goal will be presented;Minimum 6 operators from as many different EU countries along the core and comprehensive TEN-T corridor(s). It is suggested to have as many transporters/shippers as possible in order to trigger a significant impact on dissemination activities. Links among a number of the deployment sites are strongly encouraged (i.e. proximity leading to sharing of HRS);The trucks can be tractor or rigid based with a minimum tonnage of 19 tonnes for rigid and a minimum tonnage of 37 tonnes for tractors. More than 65% of the trucks should be long haul and > 37 tonnes. Vans are excluded from funding;The fuel cell vehicles powered with hydrogen should be capable of long-haul operation and they should be deployed along the core and comprehensive TEN-T corridors;The minimum range of 50% of the trucks should be 600 km without refuelling under all driving conditions. The rest of the trucks can target a regional intensive use with, if needed, two (local) refilling’s per day and a minimum range of 400 km without refilling;The vehicles should operate for a minimum of 40,000 km or 60,000 km (according to the truck type) per year, per truck, per operator for a minimum of 2 years. The operational data of these trucks has to be gathered and processed by an independent organisation. Such organisation could be a partner, but independent from trucks’ suppliers;Include a data monitoring strategy (with minimum parameters to be monitored) that would allow evaluate the overall financial, environmental and technical performance of each of the truck operation profile / fleet in the project in sufficient detail. In addition, a sufficient subset of the trucks (representative of each OEM fleet and of the use cases) should be placed under a detailed data monitoring to gather relevant information at truck level (speed, load profile, journeys, etc). Costs related to the monitoring equipment are eligible;The truck models deployed in the framework of the project should become commercially available in limited numbers after the project in order to increase real-time data gathering and improve the next generation Heavy-Duty hydrogen vehicles;In order to stimulate the EU hydrogen and fuel cell market, for each vehicle the share of main hydrogen subsystems –originated from the EU should be reported;The truck OEM, HRS operators and transport companies such as transporters and shippers (their adhesion are key to ensure the success of the initiative), should cooperate to contribute to the adoption of regulatory incentives and technical harmonisation of hydrogen trucks and HRS on a European level;Innovative business models are encouraged such as turn-key solutions to end-users and/or leasing;An overall plan for deployment (with different stages) that goes beyond the timeline of this project should be foreseen. The needs of support for later stages should be justified in view of closing the funding gap in a dynamic environment where hydrogen trucks become increasingly competitive with incumbent technologies. Proposals should contain a calendar clearly defining the key phases of the implementation of the action (i.e. preparation of the specifications of trucks and HRS, manufacturing, deployment and operation) and their duration. Proposals should foresee enough time for monitoring and assessment. In that respect proposals are therefore encouraged to put forward ambitious deployment plans including the deployment of a significant percentage of the fleet within the first 2 years of the action, in order to fully unlock the potential of European FCH solutions in the HD segment and contribute to the EU CO2 emission standards for new heavy-duty vehicles (EU 2019/1242) targets.

The refuelling infrastructure and its associated costs are not in the scope of this topic. Applicants are therefore strongly encouraged to seek support from alternative sources of funding and/or financing and provide such additional plan to minimise the risk of the implementation of vehicles and associated infrastructure and maximise its impact.

Applicants are therefore encouraged to submit complementary proposals to Clean Hydrogen JU (for the deployment of the vehicles) and to CEF Transport (for the deployment of the refuelling infrastructure)[9].

Furthermore applicants may consider additional synergies with other Programmes (e.g. European Structural and Investment Funds, Recovery and Resilience Facility, Just Transition Fund, Connecting Europe Facility, Innovation Fund, Modernisation Fund, LIFE, etc) and/or clustering with other projects within Horizon Europe or funded under other EU, national or regional programmes, or having loans through the EIB or other promotional or commercial banks; such synergies should be reflected in a financing structure and strategy describing the business model, including envisaged sources of co-funding/co-financing and in line with state-aid rules.

Additionally synergies with the 2ZERO partnership topic HORIZON-CL5-2022-D5-01-08[10] should be explored and developed where possible.

This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen and fuel cell systems and components.

It is expected that Guarantees of origin (GOs) will be used to prove the renewable character of the hydrogen that is used. In this respect consortium may seek out the purchase and subsequent cancellation of GOs from the relevant Member State issuing body and if that is not yet available the consortium may proceed with the purchase and cancellation of non-governmental certificates (e.g CertifHy[11]).

Proposals should provide a preliminary draft on ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation.

Activities developing test protocols and procedures for the performance and durability assessment of electrolysers and fuel cell components proposals should foresee a collaboration mechanism with JRC (see section 2.2.4.3 "Collaboration with JRC"), in order to support EU-wide harmonisation. Test activities should adopt the already published EU harmonised testing protocols to benchmark performance and quantify progress at programme level.

Activities are expected to start at TRL 7 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project.

The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 30.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2022 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021–2022 which apply mutatis mutandis.


[1]For definition of flagship see section 5.3. of the Clean Hydrogen JU Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2021 – 2027

[2]https://www.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/h2share-hydrogen-solutions-for-heavy-duty-transport/

[3]https://www.waterstofnet.eu/en/hydrogen-region-2-0

[4]https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/projects-repository_en

[5]https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/projects-repository_en

[6]https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/revision_of_the_directive_on_deployment_of_the_alternative_fuels_infrastructure_with_annex_0.pdf

[7]Following AFIR guidance, Article 6. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021PC0559

[8]https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t_en

[9]The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport (CEF-T) work programme 2021-2023 has a 3-year rolling call running for the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Facility, with deadlines every 6 months, .

[10]https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl5-2022-d5-01-08

[11]https://www.certifhy.eu/

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