The European Parliament and European Council have reached an agreement on the long-awaited Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (Afir), which sets targets for zero-carbon mobility infrastructure along major European roads.

The legislation mandates the construction of one gaseous hydrogen refuelling station every 200km along the planned Trans-European Transport Network through Europe, as well as one per urban node, by the end of 2030. Each refuelling station is required to have a 1t/d of hydrogen supply capacity.

“We believe that by the foreseen Afir revision in 2026 there will be enough hydrogen cars, vans, buses and trucks on the roads to justify an increase in targets” Levicar, Hydrogen Europe

Member states will have to prepare deployment plans to support hydrogen mobility by 2027.

Afir is expected to spur investment into hydrogen mobility, which has lagged behind electric vehicles (EVs) to date in the passenger vehicle market but has seen interest as a potential avenue to decarbonise harder-to-electrify heavy-duty transport.

The European Commission estimates that lorries, buses and coaches account for 6pc of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. The Commission has proposed tightening CO₂ emissions standards for new trucks, which set a target for fleet emissions reduction of 15pc by 2025 and 30pc by 2030, to reduce emissions 45pc by 2030 and 90pc by 2040.

Welcome, but insufficient

Industry associations and lobby groups have broadly welcomed the deal reached on Afir.

“We are happy to see a timely conclusion on this piece of legislation, 21 months after the proposal was tabled, despite it falling short of what we believe are the minimal industry needs,” said Darko Levicar, director of mobility at industry association Hydrogen Europe.

The final agreement dilutes targets from previous Afir drafts, which called for one compressed gaseous hydrogen refuelling station per 150km in the initial proposal and per 100km in a European Parliament revision. Afir will be revised in 2026.

“European member states must establish a dense network of hydrogen refuelling and battery recharging infrastructure, and we believe that by the foreseen Afir revision in 2026 there will be enough hydrogen cars, vans, buses and trucks on the roads to justify an increase in targets,” Levicar says.

Afir also sets EV charging targets, including 3,600kW of truck charging capacity per 60km along the core network by 2030.

“Charging is often cited as the big obstacle to a faster rollout of zero emissions trucks, but lawmakers have now removed that roadblock,” says Fabian Sperka, vehicles policy manager at European campaign group Transport & Environment.

“The EU’s charging law unlocks more ambitious climate targets for truckmakers, which will in turn green European road freight. MEPs and governments can ramp up CO₂ targets for trucks with confidence that there will be plenty of charging available,” he continues.

Transport & Environment calls for even greater emissions cuts than what the European Commission has proposed, as well as a phaseout of internal combustion engine truck sales by 2035.

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Author: Polly Martin