A six-month pilot led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland will test the SISU Escalate, a 68-tonne battery-electric truck with a 650kWh IONCOR battery and 120kW hydrogen fuel cell range extender, on a 540km daily route between Vuosaari harbor and Jyväskylä from late 2026, under the EU-funded ESCALATE project.
A battery-electric heavy truck that uses a hydrogen fuel cell as a range extender will begin a six-month long-haul pilot in Finland in late 2026, operating at a gross combination weight of up to 68 tonnes in Nordic winter conditions.
The SISU Escalate, built by Sisu Auto, uses a 650kWh lithium-ion battery system from IONCOR as its primary energy source. A fuel cell with a maximum output of 120kW serves as a secondary power source for charging on long-haul assignments. IONCOR’s modular Energy Pack batteries use a cell-to-pack architecture. According to IONCOR, the truck is designed for a range of up to 500km on a single charge, rising to 750km with the fuel cell. To package the hydrogen tanks and battery pack, the chassis is longer than that of a standard tractor unit.
The pilot is led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, based in Espoo, as part of ESCALATE, a project funded by the European Union (EU) through its Horizon Europe program. Jylhä Logistics will operate the truck between Vuosaari harbor in Helsinki and Jyväskylä in central Finland, as well as on regional distribution routes in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
“We will collect data on the technology, energy consumption, and overall functionality and reliability of different solutions. The vehicle will drive 540 kilometres per day, during which we will monitor how much electricity and hydrogen it is using,” says Mikko Pihlatie, research professor at VTT.
Kempower supplies the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) infrastructure, while Hevtec is responsible for the vehicle-side charging solution and electric powertrain integration. There are charging stations at both ends of the route, and a megawatt-scale station will be built along it. The truck will also refuel at Finland’s first hydrogen station, in Jyväskylä.
Finland and Sweden permit articulated vehicles of up to 76 tonnes, compared with around 40 tonnes typical elsewhere in Europe. According to Pihlatie, the truck faces the toughest conditions of the four vehicles in the ESCALATE program. “A total of four trucks are piloted across Europe in this project, with different structures and power sources. SISU Escalate is the heaviest and longest of these. With its size and the difficult winter conditions in Finland, the operating environment of this truck is the most demanding of the four,” he says.
The truck will be tracked through vehicle data and a digital twin. Hydrogen and electricity price data will be used to calculate the most economical energy loading strategy, and results will be benchmarked against diesel trucks.
“By monitoring the truck for six months, we will gain data about the vehicle’s performance, the ways different factors such as weather conditions impact consumption, and what limitations may occur in the operation of the vehicle. This information will help us develop the charging station network and optimise energy consumption,” Pihlatie adds.
Sisu Auto says the vehicle is a test platform rather than a production model. “The SISU Escalate truck is not a product that will be launched in the market, but rather a means for testing the technology. With the learnings from the pilot, we can choose the best solutions for a product series developed for the market. The data will help us develop energy management systems and optimise driving with the battery to maximise the distance that can be driven with electricity. Hydrogen is, after all, the more expensive fuel,” says Petri Kananen, head of development at Sisu Auto.
“Battery technology is a key element in the electrification of transport. This pilot is carried out under highly demanding conditions, with a heavy-duty vehicle operating in harsh winter environments and on long-haul routes. The pilot gives us a unique opportunity to validate how battery technology performs in real-world operations and generate valuable data for the next generation of heavy-duty electric transport,” says Juuso Kelkka, senior manager of technology development at IONCOR.
A fully electric version of the truck was tested in industrial logistics operations by Rauanheimo in spring 2026.
