Nobody wanted a hydrogen vehicle | All 1,600 requests for Dutch zero-emission truck subsidies were for battery-electric models
The Dutch government's AanZET scheme to provide up to €131,900 for a new battery or fuel-cell truck was four times oversubscribed within a day of opening
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
The scheme was supposed to remain be open to applicants until the end of the year, but within 24 hours, it had received requests for €120m, and the process was immediately closed to new applications, prompting the state secretary in the ministry of infrastructure, Vivianne Heijnen, to publicly announce that she would seek extra funding for the programme.
According to the RVO, which administers the AanZET scheme, there were 27 hydrogen trucks registered in the Netherlands at the end of February, with more than 400 battery-electric versions.
Battery trucks are said to be cheaper to buy, maintain and operate than those using hydrogen and can be charged in far more locations, but fuel-cell trucks can be refuelled in only a few minutes, compared to hours for batteries.
Much of the trucking world believes that the industry will eventually favour the hydrogen route when it must switch to zero-emission vehicles, because freight companies base their business models on keeping their trucks on the road as much as possible.
All 27 EU nations agreed last month to build hydrogen fuelling stations in 424 major cities and at least every 200km along the core European road network.
“With this agreement, we ensure that there are sufficient and user-friendly [refuelling] options available throughout Europe, for both cars, and heavy-duty vehicles,” said Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for the European Green Deal.