HE and signatories worry about slow AFIR progress
Hydrogen Europe and 120 other organisations have signed an open letter to Member States, European Parliament and the European Commission calling on the institutions to reach an agreement for the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) on the next trilogue on the 27th of March.
The signatories are in particular highlighting the slow progress on Articles 3, 4 and 6, covering the important minimum national binding targets for deployment of both battery recharging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructures. They are stressing that both infrastructures are of crucial importance to decarbonize the European road transport as no “silver bullet” solution will be sustainable on the long term.
“Industry is ready to scale up and roll out hydrogen fueled and battery powered vehicles and, if we want to achieve the EU’s road transport emissions reduction targets by 2030 and 2050, Member States must deploy hydrogen refueling and battery recharging infrastructure, as having both is cheaper than one,” said Darko Levicar, Director of Mobility at Hydrogen Europe.
“We call again on co-legislators to swiftly conclude trilogues and adopt an ambitious position in AFIR, to reflect the fast-growing demand for zero emission mobility,” he added.
In October 2022, the European Parliament voted in plenary to retain ambitious targets set by the transport committee. These targets include: one hydrogen refuelling station every 100 km on both TEN-T core and comprehensive networks with a daily capacity of 2 tonnes of hydrogen; at least one 700 bar dispenser on each hydrogen refuelling station; one hydrogen refuelling station for liquid hydrogen every 400 km; at least one hydrogen refuelling station in each urban node; and infrastructure on core network and in urban nodes to be in place by 31 December 2027.
