The country has fewer than five hydrogen refuelling stations operational for commercial mobility today, even as green hydrogen costs remain at ₹350–560 per kg against ₹150–200 per kg for fossil-fuel-based grey hydrogen — far above the sub-$2 per kg level | Photo Credit: istock.com

India’s plan to steer long-haul trucking toward hydrogen is running into a harsh arithmetic problem.

The country has fewer than five hydrogen refuelling stations operational for commercial mobility today, even as green hydrogen costs remain at ₹350–560 per kg against ₹150–200 per kg for fossil-fuel-based grey hydrogen — far above the sub-$2 per kg level industry executives say is needed for hydrogen trucking to compete meaningfully with diesel economics.

The government has approved nine hydrogen stations across ten highway corridors under its National Green Hydrogen Mission pilot programme, but industry executives say high-pressure storage systems alone still account for more than half the additional cost of a hydrogen truck.

The slow rollout comes as transporters grapple with rising fuel costs and tightening freight margins, complicating efforts to shift India’s diesel-heavy trucking sector toward cleaner fuels.

The discussions took place during a panel titled “The Great Powertrain Shift: From Diesel to Multi-Fuel Mobility” at the 10th edition of the Commercial Vehicle Forum (CVF) on Highway and Off-Highway held in Pune on June 10.

Regulatory soup

“There is no single stakeholder, no single regulator — it is a regulatory soup,” said Dr SS Thipse, Senior Deputy Director at ARAI, describing the fragmented structure governing hydrogen mobility approvals in India.

Fuel supply, storage, transportation, infrastructure approvals and vehicle certification currently fall under different ministries and agencies, creating overlapping jurisdictions and certification gaps.

“There are gaps where no certification exists at all,” Thipse said, while also calling for tax incentives and green labelling for hydrogen vehicles similar to EVs.

Even so, India is building the technical backbone of a future hydrogen economy in parallel.

The Bureau of Indian Standards has already published more than 50 hydrogen-related standards covering production, storage, transportation and mobility applications, including an indigenous standard for electrolyser efficiency assessment — IS 15752:2026.

“Our Indian standards are being brought at par with global counterparts, and where gaps exist, new standards are being formulated,” said Gaurav Jayaswal, Scientist, Bureau of Indian Standards.

In effect, truck makers may be getting closer to hydrogen-ready vehicles faster than the fuel market and regulatory ecosystem are getting closer to hydrogen-ready economics.

Pilot economy

Despite growing policy attention around hydrogen mobility, the industry conversation remains dominated by pilots and validation exercises rather than large-scale fleet deployment.

Commercial vehicle makers increasingly see hydrogen as part of a “multi-fuel” future rather than a wholesale replacement for diesel. Executives at the forum argued that different fuels would coexist depending on route economics and operating conditions, battery-electric trucks for urban and short-haul movement, CNG and LNG for selected corridors, and hydrogen potentially for long-haul heavy trucking where battery weight and charging downtime become constraints.

But even fleet operators remain cautious

“Hydrogen… I’m still personally waiting for validation,” said Sagarshi Chakraborti, P&L Head Operations at Let’s Transport.

That hesitation matters because fleet operators — not regulators or automakers — will ultimately determine whether hydrogen trucks move beyond demonstration fleets into mainstream freight operations.

For truck makers, the core technology challenge is no longer the biggest obstacle. “Performance and technology demonstration are no longer the biggest challenge,” said Vinayak Vivekanand Thalange, Director – Base Engine, Driveline, E&E at Volvo Group. “Now we need to work on cost-effectiveness, scalability and safety so that it can actually work at scale.”

Storage remains one of the biggest cost bottlenecks.

Makrand Lad, Vice President – High Pressure Gas Mobility Solutions at Time Technoplast, said composite high-pressure storage systems contribute more than half the cost difference between conventional and hydrogen trucks. He added that India is still largely operating around 350-bar refuelling infrastructure while some international vehicle platforms require 700 bar, a mismatch already creating deployment constraints for at least one global OEM attempting to bring a hydrogen vehicle to India.

Critical components such as dispensers, chillers, cascades and storage hardware also continue to rely heavily on imports further puttng pressure on the green hydrogen economy to come to scale.

Broken economics

For transport operators already running on thin margins, hydrogen’s biggest problem is simple: the fuel still costs too much.

Green hydrogen currently costs about ₹350–560 per kg, while industry executives say prices likely need to fall closer to the government’s long-term target of $1.5–2 per kg before hydrogen trucks become commercially viable at scale.

Fleet executives said the transition to cleaner fuels cannot be evaluated only through fuel savings or sticker prices. Total cost of ownership now includes financing costs, payload impact, utilisation risk, resale uncertainty and refuelling access — each of which currently works against hydrogen.

The consensus view on the panel was that hydrogen adoption in Indian trucking is most likely to emerge first in closed industrial ecosystems such as mining clusters, port logistics and dedicated freight corridors where centralised refuelling infrastructure can be shared across captive fleets.

That mirrors how CNG first scaled in India: city bus fleets before intercity freight, controlled environments before open highways.

Published on June 11, 2026