UK – Technology start-up Viritech Ltd*, Horiba MIRA Ltd and hydrogen fuel-cell technology company, Intelligent Energy Ltd** based in Loughborough, UK, have teamed up to build a commercially competitive 44-tonne proof of concept Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) heavy goods truck. Horiba Mira says it will “use their expertise to deal with engineering, systems integration, vehicle optimisation, validation and certification.”

With funding from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Centre, project ICEBreaker*** is set to begin next month (October 2023) with the aim of developing lighter, more efficient hydrogen fuel cell Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) with lower cost of ownership, so to help drive the transition of the UK’s heavy goods transport industry to zero-emissions. The proof-of-concept vehicle is to be assembled, deployed and tested at the MIRA Technology Park in Nuneaton, UK. The project is expected to run for a year until October 2024 and after completion, operators and OEMs will be invited to test the proof-of-concept truck.