Ministerialdirigent Johannes Wieczorek handed over the funding notice of 25 million euros on May 9 at the transport logistic trade fair in Munich to hylane's management, Sara Schiffer and Bernd Zens. "To achieve climate goals, CO2 emissions in transport must be significantly reduced," said Wieczorek. "We are very pleased to support hylane on the path to sustainable road freight transport."
With the help of the funding, hylane will expand its fleet by 78 hydrogen trucks and keep rental rates low. Sara Schiffer, Managing Director of hylane, said: "Through our rental model, we enable companies to easily access climate-neutral mobility. We use the funding exclusively to reduce rental rates for our users." Bernd Zens, Managing Director of hylane, explained: "And while the funds are sometimes only paid out years after approval, hylane advances the full purchase price for the vehicles for its tenants. This would not be easily possible for many small and medium-sized transport companies."
New collaboration with strong partners
At the press event, hylane announced a new partnership with commercial vehicle manufacturer IVECO: The two companies will collaborate on the provision of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). In addition to the procurement of commercial vehicles, they will cooperate on service. hylane customers will be able to have maintenance and repair work carried out at selected and certified workshops of the IVECO service network. Christian Sulser, Head of Sales and Marketing at Iveco Magirus AG, commented: "hylane is one of our first partners in Germany to trust our expertise in fuel cell trucks – we are looking forward to a good cooperation!"
In addition, hylane has gained another prominent customer with DB Cargo Full Load Solutions (FLS). The leading transport and logistics company relies on hylane's rental model for the use of climate-friendly trucks. The rented semi-trailers will initially be used in the Hamburg region.
Funded pioneering work
hylane's vehicles are funded under the guideline for the promotion of light and heavy commercial vehicles with alternative, climate-friendly drives and the associated refueling and charging infrastructure (KsNI) with a total of 39.8 million euros by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport. The funding guideline is coordinated by NOW GmbH, and applications are approved by the Federal Office for Goods Transport.
After an initial federal funding of 14.8 million euros in 2021, hylane was able to procure 44 vehicles. By the end of 2024, the fleet is expected to comprise 122 trucks.
