Toyota has signed a binding agreement to take an equal one-third stake in cellcentric, the heavy-duty fuel cell joint venture founded by Daimler Truck and Volvo Group in 2021. The deal firms up a non-binding agreement reached in March 2026, with completion expected around the end of 2026 or early 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

Each owner will hold one third of the business, which is to keep operating independently and supplying customers beyond its shareholders. cellcentric’s addressable market runs past on-road trucks to coaches, marine, rail, stationary power generation and heavy off-highway equipment, a breadth that matters while heavy-duty hydrogen volumes stay thin.

The three-way structure spreads the cost of a technology that has yet to find its market. Fuel cell trucks depend on refuelling networks that barely exist, and the partners say they will work with industry bodies across the hydrogen value chain to help build them. That is a tacit acknowledgement that the vehicles alone cannot generate demand.

cellcentric employs more than 560 people at sites in Kirchheim/Teck, Esslingen and Stuttgart in Germany and in Burnaby, Canada, and holds roughly 700 patents. Daimler Truck, Volvo Group and Toyota will continue to compete in every other part of their businesses, keeping the venture narrowly scoped to a technology none of them can fund alone.

Both good angles — here are the bullets:

Why this matters:

• Toyota’s presence turns a two-party venture into a cross-sector coalition.Daimler Truck and Volvo Group brought commercial vehicle manufacturing scale; Toyota brings passenger car fuel cell IP, production expertise from the Mirai programme, and a long-term commitment to hydrogen that no other mass-market automaker has matched—giving cellcentric a materially broader technology and commercial base than it had as a trucking-only venture.
• Hyundai’s absence is conspicuous.As the other major passenger vehicle manufacturer with serious fuel cell credentials—and one that has deployed hydrogen trucks commercially in Europe through the XCIENT programme—its non-participation leaves the world’s two largest fuel cell OEMs on separate development trajectories rather than consolidating around a shared platform, which raises questions about whether the industry is converging or fragmenting on hydrogen powertrain standards.
• The timing invites scrutiny given battery-electric’s continued advance in heavy transport.Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ own telemetry data, published late in June 2026, showed the eActros 600 covering 600 km routes reliably under commercial conditions—exactly the use case hydrogen proponents cite as beyond battery reach. The cellcentric expansion is a long-term industrial bet, but the window in which hydrogen holds a clear range and refuelling advantage over battery-electric in heavy-duty transport is narrowing faster than the investment timelines involved.