French oil major TotalEnergies and industrial gases firm Air Liquide have today announced the formal launch of their 50-50 joint venture (JV) for hydrogen refuelling, Teal Mobility.
The new company plans to have 20 stations up and running by the end of this year and already lists 15 incumbent Total hydrogen refuelling stations on its website.
Teal Mobility aims to build out 100 H2 filling stations over the next ten years to serve heavy-duty fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) — as the two companies stated almost a year ago when they first announced plans for the JV.
While the market for hydrogen passenger cars has been on the downturn in Europe, with its largest market Germany seeing nearly 70% fewer registrations in 2023 than the year before, H2 is widely expected to play a major role in decarbonising trucks.
These vehicles are considered difficult to electrify, since they need to travel a longer distance between stops and refuel quicker than most batteries today can accommodate. Batteries can also add to the weight of the truck and reduce payload, but some industry observers believe that fully electric trucks will eventually become the mainstay of the road freight sector due to cheaper running costs.
In the short term, trucking firms in Europe have been hesitant to buy FCEVs, partly because hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is extremely limited, and partly because operating costs are still lower with diesel vehicles.
FRead full story at Total and Air Liquide launch hydrogen mobility joint venture with plans to build 100 filling stations in Europe | Hydrogen news and intelligence (hydrogeninsight.com)