Steyr and TU Wien have launched a new hydrogen tractor research project that goes beyond replacing diesel with another fuel. HYTRAC is being developed as part of a complete farm energy system that connects a hydrogen-powered tractor with hydrogen production, storage and refueling infrastructure located directly on the farm.
The project, announced September 15, 2026, is being developed by TU Wien, Steyr and several technology partners. A real-world demonstration is planned at the Energy Hub Neusiedl in Neusiedl am See, Austria.
What makes HYTRAC technically significant is the choice of powertrain. Steyr’s previous experimental hydrogen tractor used a fuel cell. HYTRAC instead moves toward a hydrogen internal combustion engine, or H2 ICE, combined with an electrically integrated power-split transmission.
That makes the project particularly relevant to agriculture, where high continuous loads, long working days and rapid refueling can matter more than maximum theoretical energy efficiency.
HYTRAC Uses Hydrogen Combustion
The HYTRAC research tractor is based on the conventional Steyr Expert platform and uses an adapted hydrogen internal combustion engine with direct injection.
Steyr says the goal is to maintain continuous power comparable with the original tractor while substantially reducing carbon emissions associated with operation.
The current production Expert family covers 110 to 140 hp and uses 4.5-liter four-cylinder FPT Industrial engines in its conventional diesel configuration. Steyr offers the production tractor with either S-Control CVT or the newer S-Control 8 dual-clutch transmission.
HYTRAC replaces that conventional drivetrain architecture with a more experimental system built around hydrogen combustion and electrification.
This is an important distinction. Hydrogen does not necessarily require a fuel cell and a fully electric traction system. An H2 combustion engine retains much of the mechanical architecture familiar to engine manufacturers, dealers and service technicians while using hydrogen instead of diesel as the primary fuel.
Electric eCVT Replaces Conventional Driveline
Engine output is transferred through an electric power-split eCVT developed by VDS Holding GmbH.
Instead of treating the engine, transmission and electrical system as separate components, the HYTRAC architecture integrates them more closely. The high-voltage electrical side of the tractor can also provide power for electrically driven implements.
A high-voltage battery for the project is being developed by Voltfactory GmbH.
This may ultimately be one of the most interesting parts of the tractor.
Agricultural electrification does not necessarily mean that a tractor must become a large battery-electric vehicle. Electrifying pumps, implement drives and parts of the transmission can allow individual systems to operate independently of engine speed and remove some of the efficiency losses associated with mechanical or hydraulic power transmission.
The HYTRAC architecture is therefore closer to a hybrid energy platform than a conventional tractor with a hydrogen engine installed under the hood.
Hydrogen Could Be Produced on the Farm
The tractor is only one half of the project.
HYTRAC is being developed together with COMBHY, an infrastructure concept intended to handle hydrogen storage and refueling at the farm.
The project will investigate the possibility of producing hydrogen using energy already generated by agricultural businesses, including photovoltaic systems, wind power and energy derived from agricultural biomass.
Hydrogen could then act as an energy-storage medium, allowing surplus electricity produced when demand is low to be converted into fuel and used later by farm machinery.
Steyr and TU Wien describe the objective as an integrated farm energy ecosystem rather than a stand-alone alternative-fuel tractor.
An AI-optimized energy-management system is also planned. It would use equipment load profiles, operational data and predictive control to coordinate hydrogen production with expected fuel demand.
That matters because the economics of hydrogen machinery depend heavily on what happens before fuel reaches the tractor.
Transporting compressed hydrogen to thousands of geographically dispersed farms would require a substantial distribution network. Producing some of that hydrogen locally could fundamentally change that equation, particularly for farms already operating large renewable-energy systems.
HYTRAC Follows the Steyr FCTRAC
HYTRAC is Steyr’s second major hydrogen tractor research effort in only a few years.
In July 2024, Steyr and TU Wien presented the FCTRAC, a hydrogen fuel-cell tractor based on a Steyr 4140 Expert CVT. That machine was developed under an Austrian research program led by TU Wien’s Institute of Powertrains and Automotive Technology and supported by CNH engineers in St. Valentin.
The difference between the two projects is notable.
FCTRAC converted hydrogen into electricity using a fuel cell.
HYTRAC burns hydrogen directly in an internal combustion engine.
Steyr is therefore not committing its research program to a single hydrogen propulsion architecture. It is testing two fundamentally different routes toward using the same energy carrier.
That is a sensible engineering approach at this stage because neither configuration has yet established a clear advantage for mainstream agricultural machinery.
Why H2 ICE Could Fit Tractors
From a tractor engineering perspective, hydrogen combustion has several characteristics that make it worth investigating.
Agricultural tractors frequently spend many hours operating at relatively predictable loads. They also require rapid refueling during short planting and harvesting windows, when leaving a machine idle for hours while batteries recharge can be difficult to justify.
A hydrogen combustion engine can potentially preserve the familiar working pattern of filling the machine and returning quickly to the field.
It could also allow manufacturers to reuse part of their existing engine technology, manufacturing knowledge and service infrastructure.
But there are major compromises.
Hydrogen has very low volumetric energy density, so storing enough compressed fuel on a tractor requires large tanks. Producing green hydrogen also involves conversion losses from electricity to hydrogen and then from hydrogen back into mechanical power.
Hydrogen combustion eliminates tailpipe CO2 produced from carbon-containing fuel, but describing any H2 ICE as simply “zero emission” needs qualification. Combustion at high temperatures can still produce nitrogen oxides, meaning aftertreatment or combustion-control strategies may be required.
For that reason, the environmental case for HYTRAC will ultimately depend on the entire energy chain, particularly how its hydrogen is produced.
The Farm Energy System May Matter More Than the Tractor
The strongest aspect of HYTRAC is that the researchers appear to recognize this problem.
Hydrogen tractors are difficult to evaluate when they are studied independently of hydrogen production and distribution. HYTRAC puts the infrastructure inside the research project.
That shifts the question from “Can a tractor run on hydrogen?” to a much more useful one:
Can a farm economically produce, store and use enough hydrogen to operate heavy machinery without sacrificing availability?
That is the experiment worth watching.
A farm with significant solar generation, wind power, biogas or other renewable-energy capacity has a very different energy profile from an individual tractor owner buying fuel from a filling station.
If surplus electricity can be converted into hydrogen during periods when it has little economic value and stored for seasonal agricultural operations, hydrogen becomes more than a vehicle fuel. It becomes part of the farm’s energy-storage system.
Whether the conversion losses and infrastructure costs can be justified is still an open question.
Real-World Testing Comes Next
TU Wien says the project is intended to analyze interactions between the tractor, hydrogen infrastructure and actual farm operations rather than evaluating individual components in isolation.
The planned demonstration at Energy Hub Neusiedl should therefore be especially important.
Technical results that would be particularly useful include hydrogen consumption per hour under sustained PTO and draft loads, usable operating time per tank, storage pressure and capacity, refueling time, overall electricity-to-wheel efficiency and the cost of producing hydrogen on site.
Those figures will determine whether HYTRAC develops into a commercially relevant architecture or remains primarily a research platform.
Steyr has not announced production plans, pricing or a commercialization date for the HYTRAC tractor.
About Steyr
Steyr is an Austrian tractor brand within CNH and is primarily focused on European agricultural, municipal and forestry markets. Tractor production began in Austria in 1947, with manufacturing later consolidated at St. Valentin, which remains a major engineering and production center for Steyr and Case IH.
The St. Valentin factory produced its 10,000th tractor of 2022 that December. At the time, CNH said the site employed 831 people, sourced roughly 14,500 components from more than 420 suppliers and required about 40 hours to assemble a tractor, with a completed machine leaving the production line approximately every 10 minutes.
Steyr produced its first tractor, the Type 180, in 1947 and adopted its familiar red-and-white color scheme in 1966. The 500,000th Steyr tractor was manufactured in 2005.
The brand continues to use St. Valentin as a development base for experimental technologies as well as production machinery. Alongside HYTRAC and the earlier FCTRAC hydrogen project, its current tractor development includes models such as the 360 to 435 hp Cervus CVT introduced in the company’s latest high-horsepower expansion.
Source: media.cnh.com
