The German multinational has committed a further EUR 2.5 billion over the next five years to support the expansion of its hydrogen fuel cell technology as the company expects to generate roughly EUR 5 billion in sales from it by 2030.

Spun out of the governmental Sandia National Laboratories, BayoTech began filing patents for its own steam methane reformation process for producing hydrogen back in 2020.

Hydrogenics’ fuel cell and electrolyser capabilities will be incorporated within Cummins’ new business unit for zero-emission technologies called ‘Accelera’.

These tests were designed to see how the vehicle copes in extreme temperatures and to try out the newly developed thermal management system. The engineers were also interested to monitor how the fuel cell system operates at extreme altitudes.

The bus fleet consists of 20 Wrightbus GB Kite Hydrolider hydrogen fuel cell electric buses which are to be operated in the Crawley, Horley and Gatwick Airport areas of Great Britain.

This now extends Loop’s footprint beyond South Korea, Italy and Australia and now into Poland. The company calculates that its fuel cells are being used in 12,000 buses, a number that is only growing.

This report is based on trips to the Turbo Technologies facility in Huddersfield and to the third Hydrogen for Life conference in London, both taking place in June 2023.

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.

This moves comes on the back of a major repower bus order in the Capital and to combat competition primarily coming from Chinese OEMs.

June saw Hyundai sign a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean Ministry of Environment, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and others to convert more than 1,300 public transportation vehicles to hydrogen fuel cell power by 2026.

The manufacturer announced it is taking cost-cutting measures to reduce its outgoings to under USD400m by 2024, including layoffs of approximately 270 workers at multiple sites.

Isuzu and Honda joined forces in 2020 to develop heavy-duty trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells and have now successfully developed a prototype based on Isuzu’s Giga truck