London Mayor to lead coaliton of auto-giants in clean vehicle project

A coalition of car and fuel cell manufacturers has signed up to a £31 million project that aims to roll out a new fleet of low-emissions hydrogen vehicles across Europe.

The HyFive scheme is being co-ordinated by London Mayor Boris Johnson’s Office and is aiming to deploy 110 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in London, Munich, Stuttgart, Bolzano in Italy, Copenhagen and Innsbruck, Austria.

BMW, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota are the five auto giants that will participate in the scheme.

The HyFive project is set to deploy new standardised refuelling infrastructure across Europe with three new refuelling stations set to be installed in London, two in Denmark and one in Austria by next year.

The project will also make use of existing infrastructure, including Air Products' stations at Heathrow Airport and Stratford.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "To sell this technology we need to show Londoners and the wider world that it is not science fiction. By building the vehicles and the filling stations and allowing people to kick the tyres we will be able to demonstrate that hydrogen is a viable option and that London is at the forefront of efforts to make it so."

The project is being financed by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) and in total brings together 15 partners, including Copenhagen Hydrogen Network, ITM Power, Linde, OMV, Element Energy, PE INTERNATIONAL, the Institute for Innovative Technology and the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, as well as the above mentioned five automakers.