According to Electrive, 15 European states, including Austria, Belgium, Finland and Germany, will be funding 35 companies, SMEs and startups with 5.4 billion euros.

European officials hope that the initiative will attract further private investment worth of 8.8 billion euros.

Commission representatives expect “important technological breakthroughs, including new highly efficient electrode materials, more performant fuel cells, innovative transport technologies, among which first time roll out hydrogen mobility ones.”

IPCEI Hy2Tech, the official name of the program, will be focusing on a few parts of the hydrogen technology value chain, including hydrogen production, fuel cells and distribution.

Alstom, Daimler Truck, Cummins and Bosch are among the selected participants in the program and the Commission expects all companies to collaborate and to include as much as 300 external patents.

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, said in late 2020, when the IPCEI agenda was created, that "no Member State and no company can do this on their own – considerable public, and private investment will be required, as will cross-border collaboration."