China 300 hydrogen trucks begin hauling coal in Yunnan
China put 300 hydrogen fuel cell trucks into coal hauling service in Fuyuan county, Yunnan province, on January 16, 2026. A hydrogen fuel cell truck carries hydrogen gas in tanks and turns it into electricity inside a fuel cell to run its motor, so it refuels in minutes rather than charging for hours like a battery electric truck. State media call the delivery the first hydrogen corridor to reach full operation in Southwest China. The trucks were built by Qingtong Energy Group, a Shanghai based hydrogen company, for a coal mining region near the Guizhou border.
The trucks and the fuel built for them
Each truck is rated to carry 49 tonnes and runs on a 130 kilowatt fuel cell the company built itself, paired with a lithium battery from CATL rated at 262 watt hours a kilogram. The trucks start in cold as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius, refuel in about 15 minutes, and run more than 476 kilometers on a full 49 tonne load, the condition Qingtong states its range figure for. The project behind them cost 3.5 billion yuan, building its own 300 megawatt wind farm and an electrolyzer plant that turns water into 15,000 standard cubic meters of hydrogen an hour, enough for a projected 3,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year. It is built toward a 500 truck fleet, of which the 300 already running is more than half.
The 300 trucks already running are more than half of the 500 the project is ultimately built to support, and a small fraction of the county existing 8,000 vehicle commercial fleet.
Show the numbers
| Commercial vehicles already operating in Fuyuan county | 8,000 |
| Hydrogen trucks the project plans to reach at full build | 500 |
| Hydrogen trucks that entered service January 16, 2026 | 300 |
The cost case against electric trucks
Running one of these trucks already costs 87% of what an equivalent electric truck costs at ordinary electricity prices, and 78% at higher prices, according to Qingtong own comparison. Buying one costs 200,000 yuan less than an equivalent electric truck. Across a full 500 truck fleet, the company projects annual savings of over 10,000,000 yuan once every truck is running. Source 1, a state trade paper published inside a major state newspaper group and the closest material to an official record found here, separately projects the project will build toward more than 5.7 billion yuan in industry chain revenue over time, a figure distinct from the 3.5 billion yuan already committed to construction.
Fuyuan 300 trucks against the national hydrogen truck market
Chinese researchers counted 2,773 fuel cell cargo trucks sold nationwide in the first half of 2025, and 1,124 of those were 25 tonnes or heavier, the class Fuyuan trucks compete in, per source 4 own count. The 300 trucks Fuyuan delivered in a single day equal about 27% of that entire national half year heavy truck total, a MAOWCE calculation dividing the sourced 300 truck count by the sourced 1,124 truck national count, not a figure either source states directly. Fuyuan county already runs about 8,000 commercial vehicles of every kind, so the new fleet stays a small share of local traffic even as it looms large against the national hydrogen truck market.
Fuyuan 300 trucks equal about 27% of the entire national heavy segment sold in the prior half year, a MAOWCE calculation from source 4 own industry count, not a figure source 4 itself states.
Show the numbers
| Fuel cell cargo trucks sold nationwide, all weights, first half 2025 | 2,773 |
| Of those, trucks 25 tonnes or heavier | 1,124 |
| Hydrogen trucks delivered in Fuyuan county, January 2026 | 300 |
The environmental case
The project is projected to cut diesel use by about 9,000 tonnes a year and carbon dioxide emissions by over 440,000 tonnes a year once fully running, alongside about 200 new local jobs, according to sources 1, 2, 3 and 5. Those figures rest on power from the 300 megawatt wind farm built for this project, not the ordinary China grid mix.