At IAA 2026 in Hanover, Toyota Motor Corporation and Scania are expected to disclose the details of the agreement announced on 7 September 2026. Under the deal, the Japanese group will supply the Swedish manufacturer with its third-generation fuel cell system, with a declared output of 300 kW, or around 408 hp, powered by hydrogen for an initial pilot fleet of 40 industrial vehicles. The alliance is part of Scania’s Pilot Partner programme and should deliver its first concrete results in the first quarter of 2027. The programme is a testing tool with selected customers, designed to assess low-emission technologies in real-world conditions, from urban distribution to long-haul transport.
For now, the two companies are showing a degree of caution in their respective statements. Toyota is focusing on the possible role of heavy road haulage in developing demand and infrastructure for hydrogen, while Scania refers to a learning process around the opportunities and critical issues linked to the technology, wording that is more consistent with the still experimental stage of the project.
The practical use of hydrogen in road haulage will depend largely on the geography of refuelling, because a hydrogen vehicle can operate only on routes where fuel is reliably available, with suitable pressure and flow rates, compatible refuelling times and continuity of supply. In the initial phase, the 40 vehicles will probably have to rely on a limited number of dedicated or carefully selected refuelling points, in a context where European infrastructure obligations will be fully implemented only in 2030. The trial will need to consider total cost of ownership, rather than technical feasibility alone, because hydrogen production, compression, transport and distribution involve a less efficient energy chain than the direct charging of a battery-electric vehicle. The ICCT has estimated that fuel-cell trucks would not reach total cost of ownership parity with diesel before 2030 in the European countries analysed, including Italy. That estimate depends on variables such as the price of hydrogen, electricity and carbon, but it remains an indicator of the economic risk the programme will have to test using updated data.
The programme forms part of the framework set by Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 on infrastructure for alternative fuels, known as AFIR, which has applied since 13 April 2024. For 2030, the regulation provides for publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling stations along the TEN-T core network at maximum intervals of 200 km, with a minimum capacity of one tonne per day and at least one 700-bar dispenser, as well as one station in each urban node. However, the regulation sets only minimum infrastructure requirements. A road haulage company must still assess the actual price of hydrogen, station reliability, capacity at peak times, supply contracts and the residual value of the vehicle. The European Commission has considered the AFIR targets adequate in relation to the expected deployment of electric and hydrogen vehicles, postponing further analysis to the 2026 review.
P.R.
