Dalian and fuel cell trucks in China

Not long ago, fuel cell trucks in China were isolated pilots. In a World Economic Forum video, Dalian appears with 26 hydrogen energy businesses and the Jinpu New Area building an entire hydrogen vehicle infrastructure, a case study in the report Inside China's Industrial Transformation.

The national picture gives the scale. According to a circular from three ministries reported by Xinhua on 11 March 2026, China sold about 40,000 fuel cell vehicles by the end of 2025 and targets 100,000 in 2030, with 574 stations built and an end-user hydrogen price target below 25 yuan per kilogram.

The gap between today's volume and the 2030 target is the stretch that fleet operators and stations must cross. Until the price per kilogram reaches the target, the economics rely on the pilot city programme, with rewards of up to 1.6 billion yuan per cluster.

Dalian is betting on the industrial cluster: production, use and refuelling in one territory. Returns arrive when the station network and the price per kilogram move together.