Without any coincidence, on August 15, there is news that Shaanxi Province will also release preferential policies on highway tolls for hydrogen vehicles. At the 2nd Western Hydrogen Expo, Liu Qi, deputy director of Shaanxi Energy Bureau, released policies related to the support of highway hydrogen refueling station construction and the passage of hydrogen vehicles in Shaanxi Province: since September 1, 2024, Shaanxi has fully exempted highway tolls in the province for the installation and use of ETC-equipped hydrogen vehicles, and the policy will end on September 1, 2027.
Regions that have announced free highway tolls for hydrogen vehicles include Shandong Province, Sichuan Province, and Erdos, Inner Mongolia. Together with Jilin, Shaanxi and Hubei, there are already five provinces + one city that have proposed four free highway tolls for hydrogen vehicles.
In February this year, Shandong Province issued the Notice on Temporary Exemption of Highway Tolls for Hydrogen Vehicles. Starting from March 1, 2024, hydrogen vehicles traveling on highways in Shandong Province and installed with ETC suite of equipment are temporarily exempted from highway tolls. The policy will be implemented for a trial period of 2 years, and will be adjusted in due course after its expiration according to the implementation situation.
In April this year, Sichuan Province on the public solicitation of “Sichuan Province to further promote the development of the whole industrial chain of hydrogen energy and the promotion and application of action plan (2024-2027) (draft)” comments and suggestions of the announcement, the draft shows that the province-wide relaxation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in urban areas to pass the restrictions on the installation of the use of ETC equipment, hydrogen vehicles, exempted from highway tolls.
In May of this year, Ordos City issued a news release stating that from June 1, 2024, for hydrogen vehicles traveling through toll booths in Ordos City, after the amount of the toll is collected, the entire toll will be returned after the following month's audit.
On October 9 this year, the Hubei Economic and Information Bureau released on its official website on the solicitation of “Hubei Province to accelerate the development of hydrogen energy industry action plan (2024-2027) (draft)”, the provincial highway driving the installation of the use of the Chudao ETC equipment for hydrogen vehicles, the provincial financial support to give a period of three years to the highway tolls full return subsidy support.
From the policies released in various places, except for Jilin Province, there is no restriction on whether locally licensed hydrogen vehicles are available in the policy documents of other places. The free policy of hydrogen energy on highways in many places is expected to provide a greater stimulus to the popularization of hydrogen vehicles.
Source: Local government websites, Hydrogen Energy Hub summary
