Hydrogen project HyHaul, which is part of the UK Government funded ZEHID programme, is to close.
In a public statement on its website, the project said that “although substantial progress was delivered across four of the programme’s five work packages, the project was unable to secure sufficient customer commitments for fuel cell heavy goods vehicles and thus did not meet the milestones for this work package”.
As a result, Innovate UK and the Department for Transport have ended a key grant, which means the programme is coming to an end.
The grant included five work packages, including programme management, customer and fleet leasing, hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, data and digital and exploitation.
HyHaul Mobility said it successfully met expectations on all except the Customer and Fleet Leasing work package. Despite what it described as “considerable effort from the consortium”, Novuna was unable to obtain the required number of signed customer agreements needed to progress with fuel cell HGV orders.
It also said it was “important to note” that the signature shortfall was influenced “by the fixed timelines attached to the grant, rather than a general market reluctance toward zero-emission technologies”. As a result, this shortfall was the “determining factor in the grant’s termination”.
Since the start of the programme, more than 100 potential customers were engaged, totalling 192 trucks, representing more than 25% of the UK’s 44-tonne HGV market. Multiple customers signed Letters of Intent, Memorandums of Understanding, and letters of support, it added.
But it also said that “broader market conditions”, including diesel price parity and the phased readiness of large-scale green hydrogen adoption, “prevented these commitments from translating into signed contracts within the grant timeline”.
It said: “These pressures were not unique to hydrogen: the wider energy-transition sector has faced significant headwinds over the past 18 months, including delays and cancellations in major BEV projects, which also affected confidence and decision-making across the whole zero-emission HGV landscape.”
Kyle Arnold, Managing Director of HyHaul Mobility, added:
“We remain grateful to IUK and DfT for their unwavering support and guidance throughout this ambitious programme.
“Finally, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our employees and supply chain partners for their dedication, professionalism, and innovation. Your efforts have made a lasting contribution to the sector and will inform the next wave of hydrogen transport projects.”
Speaking about the news on LinkedIn, Managing Director of the RHA, Richard Smith, said:
“We are concerned to hear that a project to increase hydrogen refuelling capacity along the M4 corridor ahead of wider roll out has been discontinued.
“HyHAUL was set to deploy up to 30 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks, supported by dedicated fleet hydrogen transport systems and three refuelling stations. It would have laid the foundation for a UK-wide network through the ZEHID programme and benefitted hard-to-decarbonise operations such as long distance and heavy haulage. It’s important that we understand the reasons why it has been discontinued.
“Its closure is a set-back to our sector’s efforts to step up decarbonisation when costs and a lack of infrastructure generally for zero-emission HGVs continue to hold back transition. If the sale of new diesel HGV phase out dates are to be met we need options to decarbonise that cater for all use cases. We remain committed to working with government, industry and stakeholders on solutions that will incentivise and ease the uptake of cleaner vehicles.”
