Daimler Truck and KEYOU Partner on Hydrogen Combustion Trucks

Daimler Truck AG and KEYOU GmbH have signed an agreement to bring hydrogen internal combustion engine trucks to market, with the first vehicle, the KEYOU HICE.40 tractor unit based on the Mercedes-Benz Actros L 1848 platform, planned for market launch in 2027 as a complementary decarbonisation solution alongside battery-electric and fuel cell technologies. Under the partnership, Daimler Truck will supply Mercedes-Benz Actros L 1848 tractor units and engines based on its existing 12.8-litre engine platform to KEYOU, which will be responsible for adapting these to hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines through qualified external conversion partners, enabling rapid market readiness without requiring in-house hydrogen combustion development. The KEYOU HICE.40 is designed for a 40-tonne gross vehicle weight, expected to achieve a range of up to 650 kilometres using 350-bar compressed hydrogen technology with a power output of up to 350 kilowatts, targeting demanding freight transport applications where hydrogen internal combustion offers commercial advantages over battery-electric and fuel cell alternatives.

 

The Partnership Model and Technology Division of Labour

 

Daimler Truck has extensive expertise in internal combustion engine development and has explored hydrogen combustion through advanced engineering activities for several years, but has chosen a partnership model for market introduction rather than pursuing in-house development to optimise development efforts while enabling rapid market readiness. Andreas Gorbach, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck responsible for Truck Technology, said road freight transport requires different drive solutions for different applications and that partnering with KEYOU brings hydrogen combustion technology to market quickly and efficiently. Thomas Korn, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of KEYOU, said the partnership is an important step to bring KEYOU-inside technology into industrial application and that together the companies can significantly accelerate the development and scaling of hydrogen-based drive solutions in the commercial vehicle sector.

KEYOU specialises in converting existing engine platforms to run on hydrogen using an approach based on proven series-production vehicles, providing the technical conversion expertise that complements Daimler Truck's vehicle architecture and manufacturing scale. The division of responsibilities, with Daimler Truck providing the vehicle and engine base and KEYOU handling the hydrogen adaptation, allows each company to contribute its core competency while avoiding duplication of development investment. Beyond vehicle development, the partnership is deliberately designed to go beyond a pure technology collaboration, with plans for discussions on how Daimler Truck's existing service and maintenance structures could be leveraged to provide fleet operators with high operational reliability and availability for hydrogen combustion engine trucks.

 

Read more: Carbon Direct Releases Quality Criteria Framework for Voluntary Low Carbon Fuel Procurement

 

Hydrogen Internal Combustion Versus Fuel Cell and Battery Electric

 

Hydrogen internal combustion engines offer a distinct commercial positioning relative to both fuel cell and battery-electric alternatives within Daimler Truck's dual decarbonisation strategy. Compared with fuel cells, hydrogen combustion engines are characterised by higher robustness, lower system complexity and minimal adaptation requirements to existing vehicle architectures, enabling cost-efficient implementation by leveraging existing industrial structures and fitting within existing engine space without major vehicle redesign. Compared with battery-electric trucks, hydrogen combustion engines are particularly suited for applications with high payload requirements and demanding operational profiles where the weight and charging time constraints of current battery technology create commercial limitations.

Daimler Truck's existing fuel cell truck programme demonstrates the viability of liquid hydrogen for ranges exceeding 1,000 kilometres with short refuelling times in flexible long-haul operations, while battery-electric trucks address predictable routes and a large share of customer applications including heavy-duty long-haul. The hydrogen internal combustion engine fills a third segment defined by high robustness requirements, payload sensitivity and operational contexts where fuel cell complexity is commercially unattractive. The 650-kilometre range of the KEYOU HICE.40 on compressed gaseous hydrogen positions it between the range limitations of current battery-electric long-haul trucks and the extended range of liquid hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, serving a commercially significant middle ground.

 

Infrastructure Development and Energy Security Context

 

KEYOU will offer the HICE.40 vehicles to customers potentially in combination with hydrogen refuelling infrastructure development supported by German Federal Ministry of Transport funding programmes, addressing the chicken-and-egg challenge of hydrogen vehicle adoption where demand and infrastructure must develop in parallel. Daimler Truck supports hydrogen refuelling stations capable of dispensing both gaseous and liquid hydrogen, allowing all common hydrogen forms at a single station in a model analogous to today's petrol and diesel stations, reducing infrastructure fragmentation and improving utilisation economics. This integrated approach to infrastructure development, enabling a single station to serve both compressed gaseous hydrogen for combustion engine trucks today and liquid hydrogen for fuel cell trucks as that technology matures, reduces the total infrastructure investment required and simplifies the customer experience of hydrogen refuelling.

The partnership also addresses a broader energy security imperative in the European context, where more than 50 percent of primary energy currently arrives in the form of imported coal, oil and gas. Hydrogen as a globally tradable, renewable energy carrier offers the potential to diversify Europe's energy supply beyond fossil fuel import dependence while leveraging the continent's existing industrial base, technological expertise and manufacturing capabilities in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The parallel development of electricity and hydrogen infrastructure for road freight transport addresses the strain that progressive electrification is placing on Europe's high-voltage grid, where expanding transmission capacity involves significant time and investment that a complementary hydrogen infrastructure pathway can partially offset.

 

Explore OneStop ESG Marketplace: EV Solutions

 

Outlook for Hydrogen Combustion in Road Freight

 

From the end of 2027, hydrogen combustion engine trucks are planned to be introduced to market at scale, with the partnership ambition of making a sustainable and measurable contribution to the decarbonisation of road freight transport across the coming years. Whether the KEYOU HICE.40 and subsequent hydrogen combustion models can achieve commercial traction will depend on the pace of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure development in key European freight corridors, the evolution of green hydrogen production costs toward price parity with diesel on a total cost of ownership basis and the regulatory environment for hydrogen combustion engines under evolving European emissions standards. The partnership's explicit focus on long-term industrial collaboration rather than a narrow technology agreement provides the institutional continuity needed to support the multi-year development of the hydrogen combustion truck market.

Sustained commercial adoption of hydrogen combustion trucks alongside fuel cell and battery-electric alternatives would validate Daimler Truck's multi-technology decarbonisation strategy and demonstrate that the road freight sector can pursue parallel technological pathways rather than converging on a single solution, providing greater flexibility for fleet operators with diverse operational requirements and supporting faster overall decarbonisation by ensuring that no freight application segment is left without a viable zero or near-zero emission option.

 

Source: Daimler Truck AG