CEOs Unite to Call on EU Leaders: Accelerate Hydrogen Mobility Now or Risk Europe's Strategic Resilience

In a joint letter from the Global Hydrogen Mobility Alliance addressed to EU and Member State leaders, the CEOs urge policymakers to firmly position hydrogen mobility at the heart of Europe’s clean transport and industrial strategies.

The letter has been signed by executives from more than 30 companies, from multinationals to smaller vendors that combined span the entire hydrogen mobility ecosystem.

It calls for immediate and targeted policy support to unlock investment and scale deployment
of hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure across the EU.

CEOs point to three critical issues:

• Hydrogen mobility is a strategic imperative: Complementing battery-electric vehicles, hydrogen technologies are vital to ensuring a diversified, resilient, and cost effective decarbonization of road transport. A combined approach could save Europe between 300-500 billion euros in infrastructure costs by 2050. Two mobility infrastructures will be cheaper for Europe than relying on just electrification.
• Hydrogen mobility is a vector for jobs and industrial growth: Europe’s existing industrial strengths in automotive and advanced manufacturing can be leveraged to lead in hydrogen technology, providing up to 500,000 jobs by 2030.
• Hydrogen mobility unlocks critical energy system synergies: Hydrogen enables demand aggregation, supports hard-to-abate sectors, and drastically reduces renewable energy waste.

François Jackow, CEO, Air Liquide, said, “At Air Liquide, we see hydrogen not only as a key decarbonization lever for industry and mobility, but also as a pillar for future energy and industrial resilience. Europe needs a bolder, more pragmatic plan to really accelerate the deployment of hydrogen at scale in mobility. We are committed to continue moving forward, hand in hand withour partners in the automotive industry and public sector.”

Despite progress, the CEOs warn that hydrogen mobility in Europe will stagnate unless a more coordinated and pragmatic policy framework is implemented to support the rollout of the necessary infrastructure and achieve the scale needed for the hydrogen mobility market to flourish.

For this to happen, hydrogen mobility must form a central element of strategic initiatives such as the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan and Clean Industrial Deal, while the ongoing push to simplify EU regulations can help drive down the cost and complexity of building hydrogen mobility infrastructure.

Yoshihiro Nakata, President and CEO, Toyota Motor Europe, said, "Europe must meet AFIR target to unlock the potential of hydrogen mobility. We all agree that carbon is the enemy, and we can’t fully decarbonize transport without hydrogen.

"Toyota partners with over 20 EU companies in cars, trucks and other sectors on fuel cell technology and in the establishment of hydrogen mobility eco clusters, such as in Paris. The successful uptake of hydrogen mobility will require a comprehensive refueling infrastructure to be in place in every EU member state, supported by appropriate derisking measures, in line with the AFIR requirements."