German Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder visited Toyota’s fuel cell factory in the city of Toyota this week, arriving in a BMW iX5 Hydrogen and departing in a Toyota Crown FCEV — a symbolic swap highlighting both companies’ reliance on hydrogen fuel-cell technology.
BMW and Toyota are jointly developing a third-generation fuel-cell system, with several BMW engineers temporarily based in Japan to help compact and improve the technology. The partners plan to split production: BMW will build the completed drive units at a plant in Austria, while Toyota will produce them in Japan. BMW has said it aims to launch its first hydrogen series model in 2028, and Toyota plans to fit the new system to two of its existing hydrogen models, though technical details and exact timelines remain limited.
Schnieder described the collaboration as an important step for advancing fuel-cell drives and said Germany and Japan have worked on the issue since launching an energy partnership in 2019. He stressed the need to scale hydrogen for series production so transport is not reliant solely on batteries or fossil fuels and so broader supply chains can develop.
Both countries are preparing for rising demand for low-carbon hydrogen. Germany expects a sharp increase in demand for green hydrogen — produced using renewables — by 2030 and anticipates it will need to import significant volumes. Japan aims to expand hydrogen capacity to about 12 million tons per year by 2040 and is also promoting ammonia as a hydrogen carrier and transitional fuel for thermal power stations.
Despite ambitions, hydrogen remains a niche solution for now. Schnieder toured the world’s first liquid hydrogen terminal in the port of Kobe, which is still in test use, and saw pilot projects at Kansai Airport where buses and forklifts run on fuel cells. Large-scale industrial use and broad availability of green hydrogen are still some distance away.
Industry players are moving to create supply chains and lower costs. Last year a group including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Toyota, electricity supplier KEPCO, Daimler Truck, Hamburg-based MB Energy and the Port of Hamburg agreed to build a commercial hydrogen supply chain. German and Japanese authorities are studying financing mechanisms to support production scale-up and mitigate price volatility. Companies such as Siemens Energy and Toray are working to improve electrolysis technology for green hydrogen, while Thyssenkrupp Nucera aims to enter the Japanese electrolysis market.
On infrastructure, Germany has pushed ahead. Earlier this year Schnieder secured €220 million to support up to 40 hydrogen refueling stations nationwide and to roll out as many as 400 hydrogen-powered trucks. Daimler has also opened Germany’s first liquid hydrogen truck refueling station. Germany’s policy goal is for three-quarters of newly registered heavy commercial vehicles to be emission-free by 2030 — mostly battery-electric, but with a meaningful share running on hydrogen.
Japan has more limited refueling infrastructure at present and has so far focused on compressed-hydrogen stations. Daimler’s Japanese subsidiary Fuso introduced liquid-hydrogen truck propulsion technology, and Hino launched a Profia Z heavy-duty truck using Toyota’s Mirai fuel cell, refuelled with compressed hydrogen. Fuso merged with Hino to form a new joint venture, Archion, which will need to coordinate hydrogen truck strategies and could help introduce liquid-hydrogen refueling systems co-developed with partners like Linde.
Because Japan’s network is mainly for compressed hydrogen, liquid-hydrogen trucks demonstrated there remain largely concept or pilot projects until refueling infrastructure expands. Daimler and partners hope Archion will help bring liquid-hydrogen refueling to Japan so larger trucks can run on the fuel at scale.
The minister’s visit underscored shared ambitions but also the practical, technical and economic challenges ahead: scaling green hydrogen production, building cross-border supply chains, financing the build-out and creating compatible refueling networks. For now, fuel cells and liquid hydrogen are progressing through targeted pilots and industrial partnerships rather than widespread commercial deployment.
This article was translated from German.