Two pan-European projects have collaborated to bring zero emission hydrogen taxis and a new hydrogen refuelling station to the Danish capital city.
The ZEFER (Zero Emission taxi Fleets for European Rollout) and H2ME2 (Hydrogen Mobility Europe) projects, both funded by Europe’s Clean Hydrogen Partnership, have deployed 100 hydrogen taxis in Copenhagen with app-based taxi company DRIVR. The Toyota Mirais run on green hydrogen from renewable energy, following the installation and opening of a new hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) in the city.
This latest deployment of taxis means the wider ZEFER project has achieved its full complement of 180 FCEVs in high-utilisation, captive fleets across Europe with deployments in three capital cities (Paris, London and Copenhagen). The taxi deployment in Copenhagen will complement 60 taxis previously deployed to Hype by STEP in Paris, and 60 other passenger cars in London deployed between private-hire firm Green Tomato Cars (50) and the Metropolitan Police (10).
To date the 120 vehicles operated under the ZEFER project have driven over 7 million kilometres fuelled only by hydrogen. This high mileage is achieved as the project deliberately targets the very long daily mileage applications which are most suitable to hydrogen vehicles. They have achieved this without major safety or reliability incidents and offering a very attractive user experience. Vehicle performance has been rated highly by drivers and fleet managers, with limited breakdowns or issues encountered relating directly to the hydrogen drivetrain.
The Danish government have targeted all taxis to be zero emission by 2030 and DRIVR recently won the public tender to deliver ad-hoc taxi services in the City of Copenhagen. The 100 new hydrogen taxis will complement DRIVR’s existing fleet of low emission vehicles, already comprising hybrid, electric and hydrogen vehicles.
“We are incredibly proud that DRIVR has been entrusted with the important task of helping the municipality of Copenhagen reach its environmental goals, and we are very grateful for the cooperation with Toyota, which has enabled us to meet their needs with the many new Toyota Mirai hydrogen cars.” said Haydar Shaiwandi, CEO DRIVR.
“A pioneer in its domain since 2015, Hype owns, operates and manages the largest fleet of hydrogen-powered taxis in the world. While aiming to deploy its platform in 15 new cities by the end of 2024, Hype believes that hydrogen is one of the most relevant solutions for intensive and random mobility and that the taxi market can play a key role in accelerating the adoption of hydrogen by professionals at scale. We are glad to see DRIVR ramping up the integration of hydrogen among its solutions. This demonstrates that, thanks to the support of programmes such as ZEFER, an increasing number of players are taking the hydrogen path. Early adopters will definitely have an advantage and leverage their experience moving forward.” said Mathieu Gardies, President of Hype.
“H2ME and ZEFER are world leading projects in hydrogen mobility. They have now contributed to Europe reaching several milestones with large fleets of hydrogen taxis operating in commercial operation in three European capital cities under ZEFER, and to date 40 additional refuelling stations built under H2ME. This enables early adopters to use this zero emission technology. The vast dataset accumulated in the projects has confirmed the expectation that the vehicles can support cities’ efforts towards green mobility, providing the same operational convenience and flexible mobility as conventional vehicles, without harmful emissions.” said Lisa Ruf, Director at Element Energy, an ERM group company and Coordinator of the ZEFER and H2ME projects.
The H2ME and ZEFER projects promote the readiness and use of hydrogen transport and infrastructure. Commencing in 2017, ZEFER aims to demonstrate the viable business cases for captive fleets of FCEVs in operations which can realise value from hydrogen vehicles, and encourage the uptake of FCEVs to improve the business case for HRS. Similarly, H2ME aims to confirm the technical and commercial readiness of vehicles, fuelling stations and hydrogen production techniques by creating a pan-European refuelling station network that offers a viable, competitive, alternative to fossil fuels.
