Why Corporations That Make Hydrogen-Powered Semi Trucks Keep Going Belly Up

It isn’t all bad news on the fuel-cell front — as we’ll discuss below — but there have been greater than a couple of glitches on the method to realizing the guarantees of hydrogen-powered semis. Perhaps probably the most notable failure can have been from Nikola — the corporate delivered to public prominence by convicted fraudster Trevor Milton – which filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Nevertheless, that yr also saw the top of the road for the smaller start-ups like Hyzon Motors alongside well-financed outfits resembling the Renault-backed Hyvia. Meanwhile, OEMs including Daimler, GM, and Stellantis have all pulled back from previous hydrogen commitments. 

These sudden shifts should not be an entire surprise, though. One method to consider the present state of the hydrogen vehicle landscape is with the concept of the Gartner Hype Cycle, which begins when an innovation inspires the marketplace and triggers a peak of inflated expectations. Nevertheless, this typically results in a trough of disillusionment when the innovation doesn’t live as much as expectations. After bottoming out, this heads right into a gradual upward slope as a product’s real-world capabilities are explored before finally reaching a plateau of productivity when the technology finds mainstream success. 

On this reading, hydrogen-powered semis could also be still traveling the trough of disillusionment at this point in the sport, leading a few of their makers to offer up on technology. Beyond that, nevertheless, hydrogen-truck start-ups are also coping with among the same big hindrances as EV start-ups, resembling the easy proven fact that making a fresh automobile brand from scratch is a difficult task — especially when it requires a complete recent fueling infrastructure to support it.

The rise of electrical vehicles shows two more key reasons that hydrogen-powered semis and the businesses behind them keep running into problems. For one, it takes an incredible amount of money and time to get nearly any recent vehicle into production, and committing those resources isn’t a guarantee of success. The list of non-legacy firms that attempted their hand at constructing EVs and failed extends to names like Fisker, Bollinger, Lordstown Motors, Dyson, and Apple.

This country’s EV infrastructure went through growing pains as well, and customary problems with the EV charging process are still giving folks headaches despite the very fact there at the moment are greater than 250,000 public charging ports on this country. The variety of hydrogen-fueling stations, alternatively, dropped from 84 to 78 between 2024 and 2025, the overwhelming majority of that are in California and never all of that are prepared to service heavy-duty vehicles. This makes it prohibitively difficult for long-haul truckers to refuel anywhere else. Useless to say, hydrogen being difficult to search out hasn’t helped with sales of light-duty rides resembling the Toyota Mirai either.

Indeed, one evaluation published in Nature Electronics claims that the ship can have already has sailed on fuel-cell passenger cars, while the longer term for hydrogen-powered semis stays questionable. The progress made with EVs by way of production and charging — combined with their very own green benefits — means many potential hydrogen-truck shoppers can already benefit from the same type of clean advantages promised by fuel cells. In spite of everything, battery-operated semis from the likes of Freightliner, MAN, Tesla, and Volvo – amongst others — are currently in production.

All that said, the hydrogen flame continues to burn for some automakers, with Toyota being a working example. A serious player within the hydrogen space, Toyota recently announced plans to affix up with Daimler and Volvo as an equal partner in Cellcentric to support heavy-duty hydrogen fuel-cell semis. As well as, the Japanese automaker has partnered with Hyroad Energy to bring 40 Class 8 hydrogen-powered semi trucks to Southern California — albeit not in the way in which you may expect.

Toyota is handling the hydrogen fuel for the project, with Hyroad supplying the trucks. Now, the twist is that Hyroad doesn’t make trucks, and those for the Toyota partnership are prone to come from the 113 hydrogen-powered semis it purchased when Nikola sold off its assets as a part of its bankruptcy filing.

Further, it’s value stating that Cellcentric didn’t just open for business when Toyota joined. Daimler and Volvo founded the corporate in 2021, and each European brands have developed road-going prototypes of their very own. Actually, Daimler claims that its Mercedes-Benz NextGenH2 fuel-cell semi — the unique GenH2 debuted as an idea in 2020 — shall be put into limited production this yr. The 100 trucks are expected to start reaching customers by the top of 2026.

Volvo Trucks — which is separate from the Volvo automobile business — is taking a two-pronged approach to hydrogen fuel. Yes, it’s working on fuel-cell semis, however it’s also developing a hydrogen combustion engine. Trucks with these powerplants are expected to hit the road by the top of the last decade.