A metaphorical award for the most original hydrogen bus layout to date goes to the VDL-made fuel cell buses deployed in the Netherlands by Connexxion starting in summer 2020. The vehiclesare realized adding a trailer (housing the fuel cell technology) to the bus, that actually results in a battery-electric bus with fuel cell range extender. H’CITY 12 bus uses PEM fuel cells as its power source, in which hydrogen (stored in roof-mounted tanks with capacity 39 kg) and oxygen reactions take place, and batteries in which the energy produced is stored. Safra with Symbio: the French-made fuel cell bus A new fuel cell bus and the first BRT bus running on hydrogen. Van Hool bets on the electric future through hydrogen. The efforts of the Belgian company have long since been focused on the development of hydrogen drive. Two premieres are ready to be launched in the short and medium term: the new A330 FC hydrogen bus and the innovative Van Hool Exqui.City 18 FC bus, which will be on the road from the end of 2019 in Pau, France. It will be the first BRT system in Europe running on hydrogen. Van Hool, focus on hydrogen in Europe and US

With the ambition of becoming a leading global manufacturer of fuel-cell systems, Cellcentric (founded in March 2021) is expected to build one of Europe’s largest planned series production of fuel-cell systems, with operation planned to commence in 2025. To accelerate the rollout of hydrogen-based fuel-cells, the two cellcentric shareholders call for a harmonized EU hydrogen policy framework to support the technology in becoming a viable commercial solution. 2022, large fuel cell bus projects gain shape Public transport operator Transit Systems group has announced it is joining strategic partners Ballard Power Systems, BOC Limited, Palisade Investment Partners and ITM Power in the project group. The partners have just signed a memorandum of understanding as a further step in evaluating and demonstrating the concept of hydrogen fuel cell electric buses for use in public bus transport in Australia. Fuel cell buses in the US Here’s another great option if you’re looking for a bunk bed RV ladder. One of the things we like the most about it is that it’s made of pine. There are two colour options available, too, brown and natural, so you can choose the one that goes best with your interior. FlixBusannounced in late 2019 that the group is working to prepare the introduction of hydrogen buses in its long distance bus network. A collaboration between the green and orange colored brand and Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, aimed at studying this possibility, has been launched. In early 2021, Solaris has also sold 13 fuel cell busesinFrankfurt. The buses areto bedeployed ontarget routes in2022. The Polish company announces it haswon atender call made bythe company In-der-City-Buswhich isin charge ofpublic transport inFrankfurt. CaetanoBus: the hydrogen bus with Toyota techWhile this isn’t a ladder, we wanted to include it in this list because it is a great way to make the most of an exterior ladder you already have. Still in 2019, the French manufacturer Safra launched a French-made fuel cell bus made in cooperation with Michelin’s subsidiary Symbio (the hydrogen’ specialist in Michelin group). The bus Safra Businova H2features, according to the manufacturer, a range of 300 km available after 30 minutes’ charging time.The first units (6 in total) have been delivered to Artois-Gohelle, and further five units are headed to Auxerre. Articulated trambus platform takes on a new dimension with the addition of a fully electric drive option Finally, in mid 2022 RVK Cologne has awarded as many as 100 fuel cell buses to Solaris and Wrightbus. Thanks to a route which runs 85% of the time on 6 kilometre long dedicated lanes protected from other traffic, and a priority system at crossroads, the travel time of this key line for getting around Pau is 17 minutes. The BRT vehicles run from Monday to Thursday (6am to 11.30pm), Friday and Saturday (6am to 1am) and Sunday (9am to 11pm).

This increases the range once again and allow the eCitaro, Daimler points out, to finally replace conventionally powered city buses seamlessly, even when very high demands are made on range. State range is 400 km. What is very interesting in TMB Barcelona’s tender mentioned above is that three bids were submitted: beyond CaetanoBus and Solaris, an offer was presented by Hyzon Motors Europe B.V. / Holthausen Clean Technology B.V., the joint venture established by the new player Hyzon Motors in the European market. FRANCE Van Hool will showcase its first fully electric Exqui.City, at Transports Publics 2016, the international trade fair for public transport, which is being held in Paris from June 14 to 16. Keolis is providing technical assistance for the operation of the eight Fébus hydrogen BRTs. These vehicles operate on the route between François Mitterand Hospital, in the north of the intercommunal area, and Pau train station, in the south. They serve the city’s main points of activity: the educational (university), administrative as well as commercial and leasure hubs (supermarket, cinema, restaurants, city centre and its shops). Here’s the position of Van Hool’s CEO Filip Van Hool with regards to commercial viability of fuel cell solutions: «Hydrogen buses are already competitive when you compare them with battery buses. In many cities there have been tests on battery buses in these years, and the conclusion very often is that the battery electric bus is good inside the city because it has limited range. When operators need more range, there are some problems. It is impossible to replace one diesel bus with one battery electric bus: you need more battery electric buses, because of longer charging times and limitation in range. I think battery buses and hydrogen buses will coexist. If the operator doesn’t want to double the number of vehicles and needs longer range the best application is hydrogen. But we don’t believe only on hydrogen: we have also battery buses in portfolio. Today is necessary to have everything. You know why?» 2019, fuel cell buses from Solaris and CaetanoBus unveiled

The advantages of hydrogen

In late 2022 Bologna announced it launching one of the largest fuel cell bus projects in Europe so far, with 127 units expected to be in operation by mid-2026 (34 to arrive by 2024). Tender was published in March 2023, awarding was done in early September – as mentioned in the opening of this article. Winner? Solaris! The fully electric Exqui.City is equipped with a lithium-ion battery with a storage capacity of 215kWh giving it a range of 120km. The battery powers two electric water-cooled motors from the central Siemens ELFA two series, each with a capacity of 160 kW. The battery is mounted on the roof and can be conductively charged in two ways, either by an external pantograph (installed at the terminus) that’s lowered from above onto insulated V-shaped charging rails on the roof or the vehicle can be connected up to the electricity grid by plugging a connector in the front of the vehicle into a designated power outlet. This ‘night charge’ takes around four hours for a full charge from 0% to 100%. The high- voltage electrical components are hidden away on the roof of the vehicle with protective panels. A consortium of 14 companies from the fields of development, technology and science is part of the project. The demonstration phase under real operating conditions of the buses started at the beginning of the year and will last up to three years. The total project duration is scheduled for five years. Hydrogen buses in Australia, a project CaetanoBusandIndustria Italiana Autobus(IIA) have signed an agreement in October 2022 to start the production and marketing in Italy ofhydrogen-powered city busesbased on Toyota Fuel Cell technology and an H2.City Power Kit system developed by CaetanoBus. Rampini launched a 8-meter fuel cell bus The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application.

It is worth mentioning that SASA has already carried out an experiment with hydrogen buses, namely five Mercedes Citaro fuel cell buses, as part of the EU-funded CHIC (Clean Hydrogen in European Cities) project. The vehicles are still in operation.The largest single fuel cell bus tender so far has been awarded to Solaris in September 2023: 130 Urbino 12 hydrogen will be deployed in Bologna (Italy) by TPER within 2026. The evolution of fuel cell bus concepts in Europe Exqui.City is a multi-propulsion platform where various eco- friendly propulsion systems and configurations can be specified. They range from trolleybus to hybrid systems (diesel-electric, CNG-electric), fuel cells and batteries. The cooperation with Toyota has been extended in late 2020, when it was announced a strategic alliance: Toyota Europe has joined forceswith CaetanoBus and Finlog in an effort dedicated to the development and production of fuel buses in Europe.

With regards to the Van Hool Exqui.City FC, CEO Filip Van Hool said in an interview with Sustainable Bus that « the same platform will be used to offer an articulated fuel cell bus in classical look, so not designed for BRT. In this way we will have a complete range of fuel cell buses, with both the 12 and the 18 meter version». Hydrogen buses in Pau’s city center A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. This new service is part of the city public transport network and part of its global overhaul. Inaugurated by François Bayrou, Mayor and President of the Pau Béarn Pyrénées intercommunal area, it was opened to the public on 17 December 2019. Customers are free to opt for the vehicle propulsion system that best suits their needs (capacity, any existing infrastructure) and the topography of the environment where the vehicle will be deployed. The 8 Van Hool Exqui.City FC trambuses are powered Ballard FCveloCity-HD 100-kW fuel cell modules. Ballard Power Systems shipped modules to Van Hool in 2018. The vehicles use fuel cells for primary power and lithium batteries for additional power when needed, with the only emission being water vapour.In 2019, taking the opportunity of the UITP Global Public Transport Summit, Polish manufacturer Solaris Bus & Coach launched its first fuel cell bus Solaris Urbino hydrogen. The rubber footpads help keep the ladder in place, preventing it from moving around both for safety and so it doesn’t damage the floor. There are two size options available, one with four steps and one with five, so you can get exactly what you need for your RV. A long-standing partner of Pau transport operator SPL STAP (Société de Transport de l’Agglomération Paloise), in charge of operating Pau Béarn Pyrénées Mobilités’ city public transport network for 20 years, Keolis has worked on the launch of the 100% hydrogen BRT service called Fébus, that runs in the centre of Pau. This launch represents the culmination of the overhaul of the city transport network IDELIS, aimed at modernising and developing the transport offer to increase the region’s2 appeal. Van Hool and hydrogen buses Solaris has not been the only bus manufacturer to choose the year 2019 to unveil its first fuel cell bus project. Portuguese Caetano debuted on the fuel cell bus stage in October 2019 at Busworld with its H2.City Gold, shortly after Solaris had taken advantage of June’s UITP Global Public Transport Summit to plant a flag in the segment, too. The Caetano has a major string to its bow: its exclusive partnership with Toyota. The Portuguese bus builder will be the first to use the Japanese colossus’ fuel cells. May 2020, an ambitious project on fuel cell buses saw the light in Australia. 100 hydrogen buses on Australian roads. It’s the target, at least for Phase 1, of the H2OzBus Project, which has the goal of exploring delivery of innovative and sustainable transport solutions in the country.