Hydrogen will become an important energy carrier of the future. It will contribute to well-to-wheel and life cycle CO2 neutral on-road mobility and hence is considered as a key element to meet EU CO2 neutrality targets. High driving range requirements and heavy goods transportation demand for large battery capacity with adverse effect on pay load and downtime for battery re-charging. Fuel Cell technology and as well H2 engines can overcome these issues in a sustainable manner which has been demonstrated in vehicle concept studies over the last couple of years. Basing on these concepts, the value of H2 based powertrain solutions can be assessed for light duty applications. Within the joint project “H2 ICE Democar”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, a consortium of industry companies and scientific institutions determine the key requirements for a H2 engine hybrid powertrain in a light commercial vehicle. Founded on renewable hydrogen, this innovative technology enables CO2-free operation with long driving range, fast refueling and zero-impact exhaust emissions in combination with a high thermal efficiency H2 engine. This paper provides a summary of the latest project results as well as the overall vehicle concept. In addition to the adaption of the engine for lean hydrogen operation, a dedicated exhaust gas treatment system and a H2 storage system has been implemented in the vehicle concept. Furthermore, the serial hybrid powertrain architecture offers further degrees of freedom to develop a H2 engine specific hybrid operating strategy.