Across the globe, we continue to see good news about fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) in North America, China, Japan and Europe.
In California, we have 21 FCEBs in operation, more than 15 years of service and more than 2.5 million miles of experience; they perform as well as any conventional bus. In the next few years, California will more than double its fuel cell bus fleet, adding 32.
New Flyer Industries, the largest manufacturer of buses in North America, is building 25 of those 32 buses.
In an interview on the Ballard Power Systems’ blog, David Warren of New Flyer talks about continuing cost reductions in FCEBs and the performance of their newest addition, a 60-foot fuel cell electric bus that is currently undergoing Altoona testing.
Mr. Warren added, “New Flyer remains confident about FCEBs and the future of hydrogen as an energy source. There are three primary reasons for that.” Learn about those three reasons by visiting the Ballard blog.
More good news
The following are a few recent stories about fuel cell electric bus activity across the globe.
SunLine Transit, serving California’s Coachella Valley, unveiled a battery-dominant fuel cell hybrid bus on February 2. SunLine was an early pioneer in fuel cell electric buses, and was the first transit agency in the United States to convert fully to natural gas buses in 1994. To accommodate its growing FCEB fleet, SunLine will build a new 900 kilogram/day hydrogen station, making it one of the world’s largest combined hydrogen production and fueling facilities.
The second phase of a European effort to build and deploy 152 fuel cell buses kicks off in 14 cities. Combined with the first phase numbers, Europe will have 300 buses across 22 cities by the early 2020s.
In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China, Wuhan Skywell and Wuhan Tiger signed a strategic cooperation agreement to manufacture and sell 3,000 hydrogen-powered buses over the next two years.
Toyota plans to have more than 100 buses operating for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Stay in touch!
Keep up to date on fuel cell and hydrogen stories by following us on Linked, Facebook or Twitter.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/80744/
https://www.facebook.com/cafcp/
https://twitter.com/CaFCP