IN THE HIGH-ALTITUDE cold desert of Leh, five green buses glide silently past Buddhist monasteries. Each costing Rs2.5 crore—nearly three times the price of a luxury diesel bus—they represent India’s hydrogen ambition. After field trials confirmed that their fuel cells could withstand sub-zero conditions, NTPC handed over the fleet to the Ladakh administration in mid-2025 for commercial use.
Fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen from the air. At high altitudes, however, oxygen levels are significantly lower, which can affect performance. In Ladakh’s oxygen-deprived environment, this can reduce efficiency and power output. Yet, this small hydrogen ecosystem, operating at 3,650 metres above sea level—the world’s highest-altitude hydrogen mobility project—appears to be functioning smoothly. To compensate for the lower oxygen concentration, the buses use high-performance air compressors to “force-feed” air into the fuel cell stack. The buses are equipped with specialised heating systems that pre-warm the stack. The system is designed to blow out any remaining water vapour from the exhaust and internal lines, preventing ice from forming inside.
In Ladakh, infrastructure had to be created from scratch. A 1.7 MW solar plant supplies renewable energy for electrolysis—the process of splitting water (H₂O) into hydrogen and oxygen. A green hydrogen filling station in Leh, with a capacity of 80kg per day, enables local refuelling. In dense urban centres such as Delhi, however, the required ecosystem would need to be far larger and more reliable.
Elsewhere, another fleet is being tested in the plains. IndianOil, in collaboration with Tata Motors, is running a fleet of 15 hydrogen buses. These are fuelled through green hydrogen dispensing stations set up at its R&D Centre in Faridabad and at the Gujarat Refinery in Vadodara. These pilot projects aim to identify infrastructure gaps, build operational experience and prepare the ground for scaling up.
India’s investment of thousands of crores under the National Green Hydrogen Mission reflects a strong policy push. At the same time, the past five years of research into hydrogen-powered heavy vehicles highlight the slow and often difficult early stages of building a new energy ecosystem.
Experts argue that hydrogen buses in cities could help address air pollution over time, especially where vehicular emissions contribute a significant share of total pollution. Why, then, push hydrogen instead of lithium-ion battery buses, which also produce zero tailpipe emissions? The answer lies in energy density. Hydrogen carries far more energy per kg—around 120–142 megajoules—compared with roughly 0.5–1 megajoules for lithium-ion batteries. This allows heavy vehicles to travel longer distances without the weight penalties associated with large battery packs. For sectors such as passenger transport, trucking and logistics, this is a critical advantage.
At the same time, India lacks significant domestic reserves of lithium and cobalt and depends heavily on imports. Hydrogen, by contrast, can be produced locally using abundant solar and wind resources. Batteries will nonetheless continue to play an important role in passenger vehicles and short-duration storage, making the two technologies complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
Cost remains the biggest obstacle. Green hydrogen currently costs around $4–5 per kg, compared to $2–2.5 for grey hydrogen produced from fossil fuels. Without subsidies or carbon pricing, green hydrogen remains uncompetitive for many users.
A typical hydrogen bus consumes about one kg of hydrogen to travel 10km. At current prices, that translates to roughly Rs40 per km, making large-scale deployment expensive. “This is typical when a country creates space for a new energy sector,” says a senior official at GAIL (India) Limited. “Solar energy, when first introduced in India, was expensive and seen as impractical. But as manufacturing scaled up and technology improved, costs fell sharply. Hydrogen is likely to follow a similar trajectory.”
The buses currently being tested use a 70kW fuel cell system supported by lithium-ion batteries. With a storage capacity of 30kg of hydrogen at 350 bar pressure, they can travel over 300km on a single tank.
A rough estimate of fuel demand illustrates the scale of future possibilities. IndianOil is setting up a 10,000-tonne-per-annum green hydrogen plant at its Panipat refinery. If this output were used for heavy trucks with a 50kg tank capacity, it could fuel over 500 trucks a day. For buses with an average capacity of 30kg, it could support more than 900 buses daily. For light vehicles with a 5kg capacity, it could theoretically fuel over 5,000 cars per day. This suggests that building capacity for heavy vehicles could also enable the growth of a wider hydrogen mobility ecosystem, including lighter vehicles.
India currently imports 75–80 per cent of its lithium-ion battery cells and critical components. Domestic manufacturing is largely limited to assembly and packaging. With no significant reserves of lithium or cobalt, this dependence creates long-term vulnerability. Hydrogen offers an alternative pathway, as it can be produced domestically. However, its production still relies on imported components used in electrolysers.
“Rare earth minerals used in advanced electrolyser systems are not widely available in India,” says Nishita Baliarsingh, co-founder and CEO of Nexus Power, which makes rechargeable, bio–organic batteries. “If alternatives are developed, we could produce hydrogen domestically without relying on imports and move closer to energy sovereignty.”