Daimler Truck, Kawasaki and MB Energy turn Hamburg into Europe's gateway for liquid hydrogen

On 11 May 2026, Daimler Truck, Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries and German energy company MB Energy signed a Joint Development Agreement to jointly build an international supply chain for liquid hydrogen into Europe. The signing took place during the Hamburg Port Anniversary — one of the largest port festivals in the world — and underlines Hamburg's ambition to serve as an energy hub for Europe. The partners are aiming for commercial hydrogen deliveries to start in the early 2030s.

What the three partners bring

The division of roles is clear. Kawasaki Heavy Industries delivers the heavy infrastructure: hydrogen liquefiers, liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tanks and LH2 carrier ships. The Japanese company is currently building a 40,000 m³ tanker and an LH2 terminal in Kawasaki City with 50,000 m³ of storage — one of the largest in the world. MB Energy, a Hamburg-based energy group with more than 75 years of experience in fuel trading and logistics, brings the European distribution network. It owns and operates thirteen tank storage facilities in Germany, Denmark and Hungary and can convert its filling stations to LH2 sites at key logistics hubs. Daimler Truck is the offtaker on the other end: the manufacturer is developing hydrogen trucks that turn this fuel into transport.

Why Hamburg

Hamburg is Germany's largest port and an established node for heavy industry and international logistics. Bringing liquid hydrogen in through this port lets it spread into the European hinterland via existing tank, road and rail infrastructure. The choice follows an earlier Memorandum of Understanding from October 2025, in which Daimler Truck, Kawasaki and Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) agreed to study the feasibility of a European LH2 import route. The new agreement turns those plans into concrete development.

Why liquid hydrogen?

For heavy road transport, liquid hydrogen (LH2) offers a significantly higher energy density than compressed hydrogen at 350 or 700 bar. The same tank volume therefore delivers more kilometres — crucial for long-haul transport where range determines operations. Daimler Truck demonstrated this in 2023 with a GenH2 prototype that covered 1,047 kilometres on a single liquid hydrogen fill under real-world conditions. A fleet of five GenH2 trucks has since covered more than 225,000 kilometres in customer operations; a second trial phase is currently running. Daimler Truck plans to start a small series of 100 Mercedes-Benz NextGenH2 trucks with end customers from late 2026. Industrial-scale production of hydrogen trucks is scheduled for the early 2030s — exactly when this supply chain is expected to be operational.

What this means for the market

The key message is in the timing. Daimler Truck explicitly states that scaling hydrogen trucks across Europe will only work if there is a reliable, competitive supply of liquid hydrogen. By aligning truck production and hydrogen production on the same timeline, the partners avoid the classic chicken-and-egg problem of the hydrogen market: trucks without supply, or supply without offtakers. For the wider European hydrogen economy, this is one of the first deals in which a truck manufacturer, an infrastructure builder and a fuel distributor commit to a single timeline. For Dutch operators, it matters because Hamburg is close and Dutch freight corridors connect directly to it.

Sources:

• Daimler Truck: press release Joint Development Agreement (May 2026)
• MB Energy and mynewsdesk.com: supplementary JDA press release
• HHLA: press release earlier MoU (October 2025)
• Hydrogen Central, Storage Terminals Magazine, busplaner.de: additional coverage