The war in the Middle East has, perversely, achieved something that decades of government policy hasn’t – bringing hydrogen and diesel prices close to parity, Hiringa Energy’s Ryan McDonald wryly observed in his address at TruckShowX 2026.
Purely on that metric, it’s an encouraging development for the New Zealand-based hydrogen fuel producer and distributor as it works hard to build out a heavy vehicle hydrogen refuelling network in Australia.
Across the Tasman, the company has developed a network of four refuelling stations across the north island, servicing heavy-duty long-haul trucks operated by leading operators including New Zealand Post, TR Group and HW Richardson (see next week’s Talk the Torque for more on its unique dual-fuel system).
Earlier this year, Hiringa (which also recently kicked off construction on NSW’s first end-to-end hydrogen and ammonia production plant in Moree) was awarded a $788,000 grant from the NSW Government to progress Australia’s first green hydrogen refuelling corridor, including selecting the appropriate refuelling technology, securing approvals for infrastructure works, and identify the network’s future customers.
The initial focus will be developing three sites along the Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane, which are expected to be online Q4 2028. The company has plans for another 10 refuelling sites by 2030, to connect major freight corridors between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide – and eventually as many as 53 stations capable of supporting 3,000+ truck fills per day.
More immediately, McDonald, Hiringa’s Head of New Business, told TruckShowX 2026 attendees it’s focussed on securing customers that can deliver the minimum 50 trucks per day it needs to justify the go-ahead for its first three stations between Sydney and Brisbane. He’s at pains to stress that “this is not a pilot” – it’s a full (albeit staged) commercial rollout.
To this end, it’s working with key partners including TR Group and freight brokerage platform Ofload, to lock in the required customers.
Top: Ryan McDonald, Hiringa Energy’s Head of New Business; Below: A dual-fuel diesel-hydrogen truck operated by HW Richardson’s Pacific Petroleum on show at TSX26’s Drive Day
The refuelling stations will be capable of servicing 100+ trucks per day with 100 per cent green hydrogen, utilising an ultra-fast 350-bar system capable of refuelling trucks (hydrogen fuel cell, dual fuel and hydrogen-powered ICE trucks) in 15-20 minutes.
Hiringa is targeting price parity with diesel – and while McDonald concedes it’s not easy to compare “apples and oranges”, he says that using a common metric of around $1.15 per kilometre equates to circa $2.30/litre of diesel, $12/kg of hydrogen and 63 cents per kilowatt hour for batteries.
“What this is telling us is that at $12 a kilogram for hydrogen, which is basically the retail price that we think it needs to be in Australia, and that’s what we’re planning, is basically breaking even on diesel,” he said.
“The war in Iran, perversely has managed to do something that decades of policy hasn’t, and that’s to basically give a real parity between hydrogen fuel and diesel.
“And the big difference here is that the hydrogen refuelling is like a 3.5-megawatt fast charger, whereas the 63 cents a kilowatt an hour [battery charge] is probably a 300-kilowatt charger.
“And as things scale up, that hydrogen price starts coming down even further.”
Parties interested in joining the Sydney-Brisbane rollout are being encouraged to engage with Hiringa Energy early, helping shape the foundation network and underpin final investment decisions, whether as shippers, carriers or truck OEMs.