Daimler Truck AG and Shell New Energies NL B.V. (“Shell”) have signed an agreement to jointly drive the adoption of hydrogen-based fuel-cell trucks in Europe. The companies plan to support the decarbonization of road freight by building-out hydrogen-refueling infrastructure and placing fuel-cell trucks in customers’ hands.

Shell intends to initially rollout a hydrogen-refueling network joining three green hydrogen production hubs at the Port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands as well as Cologne and Hamburg in Germany. From 2024, Shell aims to launch heavy-duty refueling stations between the three locations and Daimler Truck aims to hand over the first heavy-duty hydrogen trucks to customers subsequently in 2025. The plan aims to continuously expand the hydrogen powered freight corridor, which will cover 1200 km by 2025, in order to deliver 150 hydrogen refueling stations and around 5,000 Mercedes-Benz heavy-duty fuel cell trucks by 2030.

Shell and Daimler Truck aim to deliver the optimal hydrogen infrastructure network by designing the network based on customer needs and usage patterns. The agreement also includes the joint aim to establish an open refueling standard defining the interaction and interface between the truck and the refueling station in order to realize customer friendly, cost efficient, reliable and safe hydrogen refueling. Both companies invite other potential partners to join them in their efforts.

“We want to help our customers lower their emissions by accelerating the speed at which hydrogen trucks become a commercially viable alternative to diesel equivalents,” said Ben van Beurden, Chief Executive Office of Royal Dutch Shell plc. “Shell and Daimler Truck intend to work together to support policies that will help to realize this key moment for fuel-cell trucks, and we invite other interested OEMs and industry partners to join us.”