Hydrogen Transportation Applications Report Highlights (MHE) - week 8
Series—Week Eigth
This is SEP’s eighth post in our weekly series highlighting key insights from our latest report.
Hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives are emerging as viable fuels to decarbonize many transportation sectors. At SEP, our Transport Tracking Database monitors thousands of global announcements for medium- and heavy-duty (MD/HD) trucks, ships, material handling equipment (MHE), buses, rail, aircraft, and SAF.
Of the 352 total announcements we tracked from 2023 to 2024, 10 were for hydrogen material handling equipment (MHE)—primarily fuel cell forklifts. The current database of vehicle orders is available via SEP’s North American Hydrogen Market Model: https://www.saoradh.com/hydrogen.
While this number may seem small compared to other sectors, the hydrogen forklift market is already one of the most mature applications of hydrogen in transportation. Today, there are approximately 70,000 hydrogen-powered fuel cell forklifts operating in North America (Plug Power, 2024).
Looking ahead, fuel cell forklift sales are projected to grow by 128% between 2024 and 2029, according to CALSTART (2022). This steady growth underscores the sector's strong commercial viability and the proven advantages of hydrogen in high-uptime, indoor logistics operations.
SEP’s report, Hydrogen Transportation Applications, offers an in-depth analysis of vehicle sales and registration data across global, North American, and U.S. markets—benchmarking these trends against hydrogen vehicle purchases and market developments. Access the full report here: https://www.saoradh.com/marketplace-new
—SEP Hydrogen Chapter 3: Transportation Applications, January 2025
About Saoradh Enterprise Partners
Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP) is a cleantech venture capital and research firm based in Boulder, Colorado. SEP partners with innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporations to develop cleantech solutions at the magical intersection of science (what’s possible), finance (what’s bankable), industry (what’s needed), and planet (what matters). Learn more at www.saoradh.com.
Media contact:
Jackson Levin, Business Development & Communications, Hydrogen Data Consortium
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