The sub-group’s main mission shall be to assist the Commission in developing a substantive understanding and recommendations on how to plan for and implement the roll-out of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for road transport vehicles, including as regards financing needs and approaches to pooling investment. Moreover, the sub-group’s mission shall be to establish cooperation and coordination between the Commission, Member States and stakeholders on questions relating to the implementation of Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) connected to the use of hydrogen.
The sub-group will facilitate the exchange between public authorities, industry experts and the Commission as regards the development of high-quality hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. This includes, for example, exchange of best practice and non-binding guidance and recommendations on planning and permitting procedures, needs and possibilities to address outstanding needs for common technical specifications and approaches to derisking and pooling of finance for hydrogen refuelling stations. The scope could be extended to other modes of transport in the course of the work of the sub-group. The sub-group’s specific tasks are described in the Terms of Reference and Call for Applications (see the documents below).
The sub-group will have to align with, receive inputs from and feed into the work foreseen under the new sub-group on heavy-duty vehicles that will focus on technology and market-readiness of heavy-duty vehicles and related infrastructure. Work programmes of both sub-groups should be aligned under the supervision of the Commission.
Following a call for applications, the Director-General for Mobility and Transport appointed 30 organisations (Type C members), 17 Member States’ authorities (Type D members), 1 public entity (Type E member) and 11 observers to this sub-group. The appointment is valid for a maximum of 4 years, starting on 1 September 2024. DG MOVE may appoint additional observers to the sub-group.