Hydrogen Trucks Move from Demonstration to Deployment: Europe Builds the Ecosystem, Poland Tests the Model

Hydrogen mobility in heavy-duty transport is entering a more practical phase. Two recent developments illustrate this shift particularly well: a new European industry initiative aimed at scaling hydrogen-powered trucking by 2030, and the public presentation in Warsaw of a Polish-built hydrogen tractor developed under the HySPARK project.

At IAA Transportation in Hanover, some of Europe’s largest transport and energy companies — including Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Toyota, Bosch, Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, TEAL Mobility and MB Energy — presented a coordinated plan to accelerate hydrogen mobility across Europe. The initiative is designed around a simple but important principle: hydrogen trucks cannot scale if vehicles, refuelling infrastructure and hydrogen supply develop separately. All three parts of the value chain need to grow together.

Germany is intended to serve as the first large-scale deployment market. The participating companies argue that hydrogen can complement battery-electric trucks particularly in applications requiring long range, high payloads, rapid refuelling and high operational flexibility. Daimler Truck, for example, plans to place around 100 next-generation fuel-cell trucks into customer operations from the end of 2026, while Volvo is developing both fuel-cell and hydrogen-combustion solutions for wider deployment towards 2030.

But perhaps the most important part of the initiative lies outside the vehicles themselves.

Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, MB Energy and TEAL Mobility are working on hydrogen supply and high-capacity refuelling infrastructure. Planned stations are expected to be capable of serving up to 100 trucks per day. The companies also point to the importance of lower hydrogen prices, vehicle support schemes and operating incentives if total cost of ownership is to become competitive with diesel. Recent applications to Germany’s hydrogen mobility funding programme included more than 70 high-capacity refuelling stations and 800 heavy-duty trucks, suggesting that interest from logistics companies already exists.

A similar idea is being tested in Poland

Only a few days earlier, on 10–11 September, participants of the European Hydrogen Valleys Investment Forum 2026 in Warsaw could see a much smaller-scale but conceptually similar example.

Polish company Ennovation Technology publicly presented the Ennovum H670 hydrogen tractor unit, developed as part of the HySPARK project. The Warsaw forum itself brought together hydrogen companies, investors and hydrogen valley projects, with heavy-duty road mobility included among its main technology tracks.

The Ennovum H670 is a 4×2 tractor designed for long-distance transport with a targeted range of more than 500 km. It is based on a converted MAN chassis and combines a fuel-cell system, battery storage and electric drivetrain. The hydrogen storage system uses four Type IV tanks operating at 700 bar, while the fuel-cell architecture is based on 85 kW modules. Ennovation plans to deliver four hydrogen tractor units under the project by 2027.

The truck is not an isolated technology demonstrator. This is what makes HySPARK particularly interesting.

The project is designed to create a complete regional hydrogen ecosystem. Hydrogen is to be supplied by ORLEN, vehicles will use it in real operating conditions, and a hydrogen refuelling station is planned near Warsaw Chopin Airport. Other hydrogen-powered vehicles and airport ground-handling equipment will also be tested within the project. HySPARK is supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership with a budget of around €9 million and brings together 15 partners from four countries.

In its first phase, HySPARK plans to introduce approximately 1,000–2,000 tonnes of RFNBO hydrogen per year, with a longer-term ambition of reaching 10,000 tonnes by 2030 and 50,000 tonnes by 2035.

Trucks alone are not enough

The German initiative and the Polish HySPARK project operate on very different scales, but they address the same fundamental problem.

For years, hydrogen mobility has struggled with a circular dependency: fleet operators hesitate to buy hydrogen trucks because refuelling infrastructure is limited, while infrastructure investors hesitate to build stations because there are too few vehicles. At the same time, hydrogen producers need predictable demand before investing in production and distribution capacity.

The emerging approach is therefore increasingly focused on building the entire ecosystem simultaneously. Germany is attempting to do this at commercial scale, combining truck manufacturers, hydrogen suppliers, station operators and public policy. Poland, through HySPARK, is testing the same logic in a regional hydrogen valley: hydrogen production, distribution, refuelling and real vehicle operation are being developed as elements of one system.

This may ultimately be more important than any single hydrogen truck model. The future of hydrogen in road freight will not be decided solely by whether fuel-cell technology works — that question has largely been answered. The more difficult challenge is whether Europe can build a hydrogen supply chain, refuelling network and vehicle fleet quickly enough, and at a cost that makes hydrogen competitive in those transport segments where batteries face practical limitations.

The developments in Germany and Warsaw suggest that the industry is increasingly trying to solve exactly that problem.