H2Haul

Testing hydrogen fuel cells in a real-world logistics environment

The H2Haul project will test a fleet of 16 heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell trucks in real-world commercial operations within large supermarket fleets in Switzerland, France, Germany and Belgium. As part of the project, the vehicles selected will be standardised as far as possible so as to encourage the development of a European supply chain. New high-capacity hydrogen refuelling stations will also be installed at test sites to provide reliable, low-carbon hydrogen supplies to these trucks.

The vehicles and infrastructure will be equipped with hardware designed to gather comprehensive data in order to ensure that the technical, economic, and environmental performance of the heavy-duty fuel cell trucks is appropriately assessed, and that a business case for further deployment is developed and based on reliable data.

IRU's role

IRU will monitor and supervise the discussion on data collection guidelines for the project in order to ensure that all key performance indicators and data items are achievable for the road hauliers tasked with testing the trucks.

In addition, IRU will assemble a group of stakeholders interested in adopting hydrogen fuel cell trucks in the future. Through various channels of communication, IRU Projects will connect H2Haul partners with relevant organisations in the member base. The position of each stakeholder taking part will also be identified, based on discussions regarding total cost of ownership, business models and operational aspects of the fuel cell trucks.

Project results

This innovative project aims to generate valuable information concerning the feasibility of operating hydrogen trucks, including cost of operation, fuel efficiency and overall reliability, which will be disseminated widely amongst truck operators, representatives of the retail sector, policy makers, and the broader hydrogen industry.

The H2Haul project will therefore validate the ability of hydrogen fuel cell trucks to provide zero-emission mobility in heavy-duty applications and will lay the foundations for the possible commercialisation of this sector in Europe during the 2020s.