Daimler Truck AG CEO Karin Rådström hopped on LinkedIn today and dropped some absolutely wild pro-hydrogen talking points, using words like “emotional” and “inspiring” while making some pretty heady claims about the viability and economics of hydrogen. The rant is doubly embarrassing for another reason: the company’s hydrogen trucks are more than 100 million miles behind Volvo’s electric semis.

Earlier this month, Daimler Truck AG issued a press release entitled, “Five and a Half Times Around the World: Daimler Truck Fuel Cell Trucks Successfully Complete More Than 225,000 km (~139,000 miles) in Real-World Customer Operations.” Don’t bother looking for it on Electrek, though. I didn’t run it. And I didn’t run it because, frankly, a fleet of over-the-road semi trucks managing to cover a little over half the number of miles that David Blenkle put on his single Ford Mustang Mach-E isn’t particularly impressive.

In the meantime, Daimler competitors like Volvo, Renault, and even tiny Motiv are racking up millions and millions of all-electric miles and MAN Truck CEO Alexander Vlaskamp is saying that it’s impossible for hydrogen to compete with batteries. Heck, even Daimler’s own eActros BEV semi trucks are putting up better numbers than those hydrogen deals.

So, why then is Rådström pouring on the hydrogen love over on LinkedIn?

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For some reason – posts about hydrogen always stir up emotions. I think hydrogen (not “instead of” but “in parallel to” electric) plays a role in the decarbonization of heavy duty transport in Europe for three reasons:

1. If we would go “electric only” we need to get the electric grid to a level where we can build enough charging stations for the 6 million trucks in Europe. It will take many years and be incredibly expensive. A hydrogen infrastructure in parallel will be less expensive and you don’t need a grid connection to build it, putting 2000 H2 stations in Europe is relatively easy.
2. Europe will rely on import of energy, and it could be transported into Europe from North Africa and Middle East as liquid hydrogen. Better to use that directly as fuel than to make electricity out of it.
3. Some use cases of our customers are better suited for fuel cells than electric trucks – the fuel cell truck will allow higher payload and longer ranges.

At European Hydrogen Week, I saw firsthand the energy and ambition behind Europe’s net-zero goals. It’s inspiring—but also a wake-up call. We’re not moving fast enough.

What we need:

• Large-scale hydrogen production and transport to Europe
• A robust refueling network that goes beyond AFIR
• And real political support to make it happen – we need smart, efficient regulation that clears the path instead of adding hurdles.

To show what’s possible, we brought our Mercedes-Benz GenH2 to Brussels. From the end of 2026, we’ll deploy a small series of 100 fuel cell trucks to customers.

Let’s build the infrastructure, the momentum, and the partnerships to make zero-emission transport a reality. 🚛 and let’s try to avoid some of the mistakes that we see now while scaling up electric. And let’s stop the debate about “either or”. We need both.

KARIN RÅDSTRÖM

Commenters were quick to point out that Daimler recently received €226M in grants from German federal and state governments to build 100 fuel cell trucks – but, while Daimler for sure doesn’t want to give back the money, it’s also pretty difficult to believe that Rådström’s pro-hydrogen posturing is sincere.

Especially since most of it seems like nonsense.

We’re not doing any of that

At the risk of sounding “emotional,” Rådström’s claims that building a hydrogen infrastructure in parallel will be less expensive than building an electrical infrastructure, and that “you don’t need a grid connection to build it,” are objectively false.

Further, if her claim that “putting 2,000 H2 stations in Europe is relatively easy” isn’t outright laughable, it’s worth noting that Europe had just 265 hydrogen filling stations in operation in 2024 (and only 40% of those, or about 100, were capable of serving HD trucks). At the same time, the IEA reported that there are nearly five million public charging ports already in service on the continent.

Next, the claim that, “Europe will rely on import of energy, and it could be transported into Europe from North Africa and Middle East as liquid hydrogen” (emphasis mine), is similarly dubious – especially when faced with the fact that, in 2023, wind and solar already supplied about 27–30% of EU electricity.

I will agree, however, with one of Rådström’s claims. She notes that, “some use cases of our customers are better suited for fuel cells than electric trucks – the fuel cell truck will allow higher payload and longer ranges.” That’s debatable, but widely accepted as true … for now. Daimler’s own research into lighter, more energy-dense, and lower-cost solid-state battery technology, however, may mean that it won’t be true for long, however.

Unless, of course, Mercedes’ solid-state batteries don’t work (and she would know more about that than I would, as a mere blogger).

Electrek’s Take

As you can imagine, Karin Rådström post generated quite a few comments at the Electrek watercooler. “Insane to claim that building hydrogen stations would be cheaper than building chargers,” said one fellow writer. “I’m fine with hydrogen for long haul heavy duty, but lying to get us there is idiotic.”

Another comment I liked said, “(Rådström) says that chargers need to be on the grid – you already have a grid, and it’s everywhere!”

At the end of the day, I have to echo the words of one of Mercedes’ storied engineering partners and OEM suppliers, Mahle, whose Chairman, Arnd Franz, who that building out a hydrogen infrastructure won’t be possible without “blue” H made from fossil fuels as recently as last April, and maybe that’s what this is all about: fossil fuel vehicles are where Daimler makes its biggest profits (for now), and muddying the waters and playing up this idea that we’re in some sort of “messy middle” transition makes it just easy enough for a reluctant fleet manager to say, “maybe next time” when it comes to EVs.

We, and the planet, will suffer for such cowardice – but maybe that’s too much malicious intent to ascribe to Ms. Rådström. Maybe this is just a simple “Hanlon’s razor” scenario and there’s nothing much else to read into it.

Let us know what you think of Rådström’s pro-hydrogen comments, and whether or not Daimler’s shareholders should be concerned about the quality of the research behind their CEO’s public posts, in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Karin Rådström, via LinkedIn.

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Chevy flew us out to San Diego and hosted us for a quick adventure to the mountains east of the city to show off the new Chevy Silverado Trail Boss EV. Was this the new boss of the trails or just some expensive inside and outside trim updates? As usual, the answer lies in between. Let’s take a look…

Exterior

Chevy’s Silverado EVs have a distictive look from the ICE varieties and that contiues with the new Trail Boss trim. Most notable is the smaller grill, hiding the large Frunk and triangular blades on the bed, both of which make the aero on the EV version better.

The trail boss extends the rugged looks on the outside with a 2-inch lift, and 35-inch all terrain tires. Somehow however, Chevy rates the same 410 miles extended/478 miles Max range as the unlefted, smaller tire LT. There is a slightly reduced 625/725 horsepower over the 645/760 horsepower LT but higher torque which jibes with the bigger tires and the off roading motif.

Standard four-wheel steer and Sidewinder diagonal steering give it the ability steer around tight corners and drive diagonally like its GMC Hummer and Sierra Crabwalking brethren.

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Interior

The inside of the Trail Boss is distinctly sport/rugged exclusive (any color as long as it is) Black and Artemis interior with Red accent stitching reminiscent of the Chevy Blazer EV SS. Like other Silverado EVs, there’s a midgate that allows lots of expandibility options.

The drive

There’s a lot to love about the drive. I’m always amazed how well this huge GM EVs handle driving around town. I got to trailer a 10,000lb Polaris for 20 minutes and almost forgot it was there (which ironically is probably its biggest safety hazard). Unfortunately we weren’t on any Supercruise approved roads but I’ve taken the Sierra EV out on long trips and it is one of, if not the best Super Cruise form factors available.

Off roading was a little tame for my tastes – perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Rivian adventures. We hit some dirt roads/trails in a very slow a deliberate manner. With the huge, heavy battery, long wheelbase and gargantuan footprint, this isn’t as agile through the trails as I’d hoped. However that rear steering did help turning radius quite a bit and it chomed up everything we threw at it, especially in Off-road mode. I think the Silverado has a lot more to offer than what we got to see on this trip in terms of off roading. In the breif moments I was able to air this thing out, on road and off, it never dissapointed.

Charging

Charging for the Trail Boss is almost completely like the other Silverado EVs which means very fast CCS (no native NACS yet) charging on a huge battery. GM claims 100 miles in 10 minutes. On the Max battery, that will be at 350kW, 300kW on the extended battery. I have to give Chevy props however for making charging part of this adventure. We stopped at a Tesla Supercharger station, whipped out or NACS adapters and let it fly. At over 86% state of charge, we still got over 120kW of charging speed which is only slightly less impressive when you consider this is sort of like 2x100kWh batteries charging at 60kW/ea.

Electrek’s take

GM’s monster 205kWh hour battery is still the only game in town for those who want to tow really long distances or get huge range out of a monumentally inefficient full-sized pickup design. For towing, nothing will take you further between charges, Silverado/Sierra EVs are the distance champs.

The Silverado EV Trail Boss though takes that off road in a meaningful way with the lift, bigger tires and off road modes, perhaps not as seriously as the Hummer EV but at a much more palatable starting price of $72,000.

Also this is the biggest mobile battery in town with its 10kW output which will go full bore for an amazing 20 hours on a charge. That means you can run your house/campsite/worksite/etc for much longer and at higher power than anyone else.