On 2 July, H2Haul partners and stakeholders met – virtually – at the first meeting of the Observer Group to discuss current and future legislation on zero-emissions, hydrogen fuel cell trucks and market opportunities for the introduction of hydrogen technologies.
The Observer Group members are national transport associations, logistics services providers, shippers, and transport carriers that play a key role in shaping the future of freight transport.
The H2Haul dissemination team, consisting of Hydrogen Europe, IRU Projects and WaterstofNet, brought together key industry players to share their work and views on decarbonising road freight transport with Observer Group members.
Hydrogen Europe talked about the current legislation, such as the regulation setting CO2 emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles and the upcoming Alternative fuels Infrastructure Directive review, and their importance for achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Notable speakers from CNH Industrial/FPT and VDL gave an overview of hydrogen fuel cell technologies for heavy-duty vehicles and open market opportunities.
H2Haul will play a vital role in the mass production of fuel cell trucks in Europe, thus contributing to boosting hydrogen demand for the heavy-duty road transport sector and meeting the targets set out in the European Green Deal. This meeting is well-timed as the European Commission will present its hydrogen strategy on 8 July.
Background
The H2Haul project is co-funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) under the European Union’s research and innovation framework programme Horizon 2020. It aims to deploy 16 zero-emission fuel cell trucks in four demonstration sites and will run for five years.
The following organisations are participating in the H2Haul project: Air Liquide, Element Energy Limited, ElringKlinger, Eoly, FPT Industrial, H2 Energy Limited, Hydrogen Europe, IRU Projects, IVECO, Powercell Sweden, Sphera, VDL Enabling Transport Solutions, WaterstofNet. The trucks will be operated by a German logistics company (for BMW Group logistics), Coop, Colruyt Group, Carrefour (Blondel, Chabas, ID Logistics, Malherbe and Perrenot), and Air Liquide.