The Hydrogen in Mobility (SWiM) grant was awarded by the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management to two consortia linked to Fountain Fuel’s H₂ refueling stations. Several nationwide partnerships of H₂ fueling stations and transportation logistics entrepreneurs have received grants. The grant was applied for by 100 companies, 12 gas station operators and c.a. 10-15 vehicle manufacturers.

The grant for the two consortia, for which Fountain Fuel is the leader, is €8.2 MM. These consortia involve 30 transport logistics partners , including Van Hooft Transport and MAN Truck & Bus. The consortia’s direct CO₂ savings from using H₂ instead of fossil fuels is c.a. 4,000 tons per year.

Maarten Bos, general manager at Van Hooft Transport: “This is a great step in making our fleet more sustainable. Especially for our exceptional transport and our heavy truck-mounted cranes, H₂ is the solution for zero-emission transport.“

Jacobjan Vermeiden, Manager Transport Solutions MAN: “With this grant, we as a truck manufacturer can accelerate the introduction of more H₂ trucks to the market and further develop the truck.“

Interest in this grant was so strong in 2024 that the application was widely oversubscribed. For 2025, the available subsidy will therefore be increased by IenW to €40 Mln, it was announced by IenW during the National H₂ Congress on Dec. 4.

The grant award marks the start of H₂ as a concrete alternative to battery-electric driving. Beer Kwantes, head of business development at Fountain Fuel: “Companies betting on H₂ see it as a necessary and inevitable complement to battery-electric solutions. Consider heavy transport, longer distances, vans for construction companies and breakdown services and applications where constant deployment is important. We are pleased that the 2025 budget has been increased. In fact, we already have a lot of applications on hold for the upcoming SWiM round.”

Aside from practical uses, construction companies and breakdown services want to offer employees comfort. Stephan Bredewold, director at Fountain Fuel: “H₂-powered vans have more range and only 5 minutes of refueling time. This prevents “loading stress” and irritation. Many an employer, meanwhile, sees this as a fringe benefit and uses it as part of labor market communication.”

In the first phase of making mobility more sustainable, heavy emphasis was placed on battery-electric transport and e-charging. Grid congestion is causing delays in the rollout of the e-charge network, compromising the transition to zero-emission mobility. H₂-powered mobility has thus now become an inevitable alternative.

Fountain Fuel offers both mobility solutions (H₂ refueling and e-charging). Bredewold: “H₂ is desperately needed to avoid putting even more strain on the electricity grid. With one H₂ refueling station of 350,000 kg/yr, about 11,760,000 kWh of grid load can be avoided: that is equal to the power consumption of about 5,000 Dutch households. You see that’s why H₂-based solutions are being looked at a rapid, accelerated pace.“

For Fountain Fuel, the award of SWiM means the accelerated development of fueling stations 4 through 8. The construction of the XL H₂ refueling stations Nijmegen and Rotterdam has now started. As of 2025, people nationwide can visit about 25 gas stations. Manufacturers are coming up with mass-produced vehicles, making H₂ in mobility a viable, affordable and scalable alternative.