Scania hydrogen truck claims 1,000 km range and starts hauling real freight over the Brenner Pass

A Scania 40 R hydrogen fuel cell prototype has begun a large-scale road trial in northern Italy. South Tyrolean operator Gruber Logistics has been running the three-axle tractor since May 2026 on real commercial routes, carrying loads for Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, ABB, Verallia Italia and regional brewer Birra Forst. It is the first time a heavy-duty hydrogen truck has been used in Italy for real day-to-day logistics.

Tested on the Brenner corridor

The truck is deployed on the freight corridor between Italy and Germany, crossing the Alps via the Brenner Pass. That choice is deliberate: mountainous terrain, long distances and high loads are exactly the conditions where hydrogen propulsion has to prove itself in practice. The trial is part of ZEFES (Zero Emission Fleet for European Sustainability), an EU-funded project worth around €39 million in which 9 different zero-emission tractor configurations are being tested across Europe — 6 battery-electric and 3 hydrogen — with the aim of gathering up to one million kilometres of real-world data. ZEFES brings together 40 partners from 14 countries.

What's under the cab?

Scania built the hydrogen truck on its existing battery-electric platform and added the fuel cell hardware on top. The technical specifications:

• 4 hydrogen tanks holding a total of 56 kg at 700 bar
• 300 kW fuel cell
• 400 kW electric motor
• 416 kWh battery (345 kWh usable)
• Refuelling in 20 minutes with pre-cooled hydrogen at 700 bar
• Fast charging via CCS2 up to 350 kW
• Consumption: 0.1 kg of hydrogen per kilometre plus 1.1 kWh per kilometre

According to Scania, the total range on a full hydrogen fill and a full battery is around 1,000 kilometres: 690 km from the hydrogen tanks and 310 km from the battery. That second figure matters operationally: even if the hydrogen tanks run dry, the truck still works as a pure BEV for a few hundred kilometres.

Why this trial matters

Compared with a similar battery-electric tractor, this FCEV configuration offers three operational advantages: a longer uninterrupted range, a 20-minute refuel instead of longer charging stops, and the flexibility that hydrogen refuelling infrastructure can be placed more easily in decentralised locations than heavy fast chargers. The flip side is real: the refuelling network for hydrogen trucks is still in its infancy across Europe, and the production and distribution chain for green hydrogen still needs significant scale-up.

What this means for the sector

For heavy road transport, this is one of the first trials in which a hydrogen truck isn't running on a closed track or demonstration route, but simply delivering goods for major customers — under normal time pressure, on normal routes, with normal loads. The data collected here on consumption, reliability and day-to-day operations are precisely the building blocks the market needs to move FCEV trucks from pilots to serious fleets. The trial runs on one of Europe's busiest freight corridors — making the results directly comparable to the daily reality of Dutch and German operators.

Sources:

• Scania Group and Gruber Logistics: press releases on the start of the trial (May 2026)
• TrasportoEuropa: technical specifications of the Scania 40 R FCEV
• ZEFES project: project information and partner overview
• Hydronews.it and Uomini e Trasporti: Italian coverage