A weekly editorial by Dr. Eng. Victor Hugo Rangel-Hernández, Founder of Vanguard H2 Systems GmbH
This week’s headline
170 companies, coordinated by Hydrogen Council, Hydrogen Europe, and the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition, sent a letter dated September 24 to European Commission President von der Leyen urging the EU to keep binding RFNBO hydrogen targets in place beyond 2030. The signatories represent €15 billion in committed European investment. Hydrogen Council CEO Ivana Jemelkova put it directly: “Global investors need to know that when Europe sets a long-term policy direction, they can have confidence in it.” Hydrogen Europe’s Jorgo Chatzimarkakis was blunter: “This is a test of Europe’s credibility. Weakening the renewable hydrogen targets now would change the rules mid-game.” The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition’s François Paquet tied it to the investment case plainly: “Europe needs investment. Investment needs certainty. Certainty needs binding RFNBO targets.”
This letter is best read alongside a development flagged in last week’s edition: analysis from Capstone DC had surfaced a separate lobbying push, from proponents of nuclear-based hydrogen, to loosen RFNBO’s renewable-electricity threshold so that nuclear power could count toward compliance. The policy fight over what counts as “renewable” hydrogen in the EU’s post-2030 framework is now visibly contested from both directions — and this week, the binding-targets side organized publicly and at scale.
Infrastructure — HRS
H2 Infrastructure Alliance (H2IA). The alliance — whose membership can now be named for the first time in this brief: Hydri, TEAL Mobility, Fountain Fuel, H2 Mobility, Virya Energy, and HYmpulsion — issued a public call urging vehicle manufacturers to accelerate hydrogen vehicle deployment, arguing that refueling infrastructure is being built ahead of vehicle availability and risks going underused.
Air Products. The global industrial-gas major is building two large-scale hydrogen refueling stations in Germany, in Duisburg and Meckenheim, near its existing hub in Hattingen, with a third previously announced for Hürth-Knapsack. The project has backing from North Rhine-Westphalia’s state economics ministry (funding amount undisclosed) and targets “first-mover truck operators.” Air Products states it operates more than 250 hydrogen station projects across 20 countries globally. For scale, North Rhine-Westphalia’s own 2030 target is 11,000 hydrogen fuel-cell trucks and 200 refueling stations region-wide.
China
In earlier editions, this brief cited a “20% by 2030” target for new-energy heavy trucks in China without full precision. The underlying joint statement — issued June 13, 2026 by 11 Chinese government bodies including the Ministry of Transport — actually sets two related but distinct figures: a 40% target for new-energy heavy trucks as a share of new truck sales by 2030, expected to produce a fleet exceeding 1.6 million vehicles, which separately works out to roughly 20% of the total heavy-duty truck fleet by that date. Both numbers are accurate; conflating them into a single “20%” was this brief’s error, not the source’s.
It is also worth being precise about what the target covers: the government document does not single out hydrogen. “New-energy heavy trucks” is defined broadly (12+ tonnes gross weight, “new power systems”), and the policy discussion around this target centers overwhelmingly on battery-electric and battery-swap trucks. This brief will stop presenting it as a hydrogen-specific commitment.
A note on evidence
No direct quotes were available from H2IA for this week’s OEM-acceleration call; it is reported as stated by the source consulted, without independent corroboration from a second outlet. Several other leads this week (a hydrogen station reportedly opened in Rheine, Germany; commentary on hydrogen truck investment hurdles in Europe; an update on Dongfeng’s hydrogen truck operations in China) could not be verified because their primary sources returned access errors on every attempt — they are omitted from this edition rather than reported on the strength of headlines alone.
Vanguard H2 Systems GmbH publishes this brief weekly as part of its commitment to evidence-based hydrogen infrastructure intelligence. For questions, analysis requests, or to discuss a specific hydrogen project, contact Dr. Eng. Victor Hugo Rangel-Hernández directly at v.rangel@vanguardh2.de.
© 2026 Vanguard H2 Systems GmbH · Poststraße 12 · 52428 Jülich · Germany