GHMA unveiled its Market Activation Strategy, setting out a clear path to move hydrogen mobility
The Global Hydrogen Mobility Alliance (GHMA), – a coalition of leading transport, energy, and industrial players investing in Europe, unveiled its Market Activation Strategy, setting out a clear path to move hydrogen mobility from pilot projects to mass deployment in order to deliver clean, competitive and resilient transport future for Europe.
The new report by the Alliance members highlights that hydrogen mobility holds strategic value for Europe as a complement to battery electrification, but strategies to date, especially for heavy-duty, have not activated the market or overcome the initial cost hurdle. Contrasting Europe’s progress with quickly moving global markets, the report warns that without urgent action, Europe risks falling behind in the global race – locked in high costs, low utilisation, and slow adoption. To address the challenge, the report identifies the specific tipping points that must be reached for hydrogen mobility to become self-sustaining and outlines the key levers industry and policymakers should pull to unlock scale.
Specifically, the Alliance highlights five urgent actions to unlock hydrogen mobility in Europe:
• Deploy hydrogen where it adds the most value in the near term: Prioritise heavy- duty trucks as the first and critical segment to open at scale, then expand to buses, taxis, and corridors, with focused deployments in key demand hubs near industrial basins where large-scale, cost-competitive hydrogen sources already exist.
Close the cost gap with diesel: An optimised hydrogen supply chain can already deliver costs of €8-10/kg at the pump, with reductions possible as scale increases. Targeted interventions are needed to support hydrogen truck purchases, guarantee demand through take-or-pay contracts, and enable competitive hydrogen at the pump. Reaching parity needs both competitive truck pricing and pump price progress with a transition as early as possible to liquid hydrogen.
• Build large-scale refuelling stations: Commit to a capacity of at least 1t/day per station, with increased support for over 2t/day, with fully synchronised truck fleet roll- outs to load stations quickly and secure utilisation above 50 percent ensuring deployment alongside fleets to maximise rapid station utilisation.
•Use available, cost-competitive hydrogen to activate markets: Decouple vehicle and infrastructure ramp up from the decarbonization of hydrogen production, while mandating a clear transition to fully decarbonized hydrogen within fixed timelines. A similar approach has allowed the ramp up of battery electric vehicles whilst decarbonizing electricity production in parallel. Also, such a decoupled approach is proving successful in markets such as China and Korea.
Align industry and policy on scaling: Standardise regulations, accelerate permitting, and ensure subsidies reward ecosystems that can reach critical mass while putting in place pragmatic public support schemes backing both hydrogen refuelling infrastructure investment and vehicle purchases, with minimal initial constraints – prioritising viable business cases for customers and investors.
The activation phase should deploy a few thousand heavy-duty trucks by 2030 across European hubs. This scale will enable tipping points in supply chain economics, with hydrogen trending towards 6 €/kg in favourable regions, and reductions in truck production costs, and thus open the way to faster deployment in the 2030s and support Europe’s decarbonization goals.
The Market Activation Strategy unveiled at EU Hydrogen Week (#EUH2Week2025 )on 30 September, during a high-level panel featuring Peter Mackey (Air Liquide), Manfred Schuckert (Daimler Truck), Jürgen Guldner (BMW), Niki Berger, (Bosch), and Antoine Tournand, (TotalEnergies), moderated by Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe.
Image of GHMA
Press release https://tinyurl.com/nhb3m4r9
