Following calls from trade bodies, Thyssenkrupp Nucera, Quest One, Siemens Energy, Sunfire, and Stoff2 said the German parliament should increase 2030 mobility quotas for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) by over 1%.

It comes as the lower house is expected to sign off on the cabinet-approved GHG-Quota on 17 March, which implements targets for RFNBO consumption in road mobility under the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED III).

Under Berlin’s current proposal, RFNBOs like green hydrogen and e-fuels will need to make up 0.1% of transport energy by 2026, growing to 1.2% in 2030, and 8% by 2040. The government also opted to allow the so-called refinery route, meaning fuel produced with green hydrogen in refining can count toward the targets.

While those targets are ahead of RED III mandates, the OEMs said the proposal is “insufficient” to scale project deployments.

“Projects already under construction would cover approximately two-thirds of this [2030] demand,” they said. “New investment decisions of the necessary scale are therefore unlikely.”

Germany’s upper house has proposed a phased increase of 2.5% in quota in 2030, 3% in 2032, and 2.5% in 2034.

“In our view, this proposal makes sense from both a technical and industrial policy perspective,” the companies said, adding that it should be supported by the lower house.

“If the quota is not increased…not only is there a risk of lost impetus for the hydrogen ramp-up. There is a risk that the currently developing industrial value creation will migrate abroad and…dependencies will develop or become entrenched, for example, on Chinese manufacturers.”

The GHG-Quota had been praised by many in the sector, who hailed it as a key demand driver for green hydrogen.

According to analysis by US electrolyser maker Electric Hydrogen, the 1.2% target alone could need between 1.1GW and 4.2GW of electrolyser capacity. Commodity intelligence group ICIS said that by Q4 2025, Germany had 933MW of green hydrogen projects that had passed final investment decision.