UK / Canada – Electric light commercial vehicle startup, First Hydrogen Corporation of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has announced that the company's hydrogen-fuel-cell powered vehicle (FCEV) has been delivered to a second UK utility operator, SSE, which operates one of the UK’s largest fleets. This comes after a successful one-month UK trial earlier this year with Rivus. SSE will trial the FCEV van at its operational site in Aberdeen, Scotland, as it looks to replace 2,500 of its legacy fleet with more sustainable vehicles to reach Net Zero. The tests will enable First Hydrogen to gather data on fuel consumption, usage and efficiency, to therefore calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) more accurately. A hydrogen fuel station on site will mean a seven-to-eight-minute refuelling time.

In an email correspondence, Allan Rushforth, Chief Commercial Officer at First Hydrogen, told T&BB that he expects series production to begin between the next two to four years. He continued to explain that the company’s target markets are the UK, Europe and North America, as their strategy remains heavily influenced by government policy, hydrogen infrastructure development and support for zero-emission mobility.