Hydrogen cars stretch range to five million km
- 09/08/2019
- Posted by: Alan Feldberg
- Category: News
Hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles deployed by Hydrogen Mobility Europe (H2ME) travelled five million kilometres last year.
H2ME is a pan-European project which has so far deployed nearly 500 hydrogen vehicles and 30 hydrogen refuelling stations across Europe. It aims to support the commercialisation of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies in Europe. As well as creating the world’s largest network of HRS, it is sharing best practice and standards between the 43 partners and helping develop attractive ownership models in use cases such as taxis, captive fleets, and in cities with strict environmental targets. In total, the project will deploy 49 HRS and 1,400 hydrogen fuel cell cars and vans by 2022.
Ben Madden, director at Element Energy, project lead, said, ‘Governments at a national and local level are putting in place concrete targets to reduce emissions and accelerate the switch to zero-emission mobility. The H2ME project demonstrates that hydrogen can play a central role in this shift, ensuring that all road users have the option to participate in the transition, thanks to its ability to provide fast refuelling and long range. Today, we can already see an acceleration of the use of hydrogen as a fuel in heavy-duty and high demand applications, such as taxis, delivery vehicles and trucks.’
Graham Cooley, CEO of ITM power – UK coalition lead, said, ‘The UK government is now preparing to end its contribution to global warming within 30 years by setting an ambitious new target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. The importance of hydrogen in enabling the UK to meet this target was highlighted in the government report, which stated that ‘Low-carbon hydrogen moves from being a useful option to a key enabler. Updates to policy alongside adoption of our recommended target should reflect that’, reinforcing the contribution H2ME can make moving forward.’
Its findings will be shared at the Hydrogen for Clean Transport mid-term conference, which will take place in Hamburg on 25 October 2019.
