Nearly 20 years ago, a consortium presented a London Taxi (TX1) to the PCO that was zero emission, could run all day on one tank of fuel, with a range of 250 miles and could be refuelled in 5 minutes....While the taxi looked and drove just like the iconic London black cab, it was powered by an 'Intelligent Energy' hydrogen fuel cell system hydridised with lithium polymer batteries.
This revolutionary system allowed the vehicle to operate for a full working day without refuelling.
Capable of a top speed of 80mph, it had a range of over 250 miles on a full tank of hydrogen and could refuel in 5 minutes. Producing no emissions other than water vapour.
This taxi had been developed with help from the TSB by a consortium including; Intelligent Energy, Lotus Engineering, LTI Vehicles and TRW Conekt. The question is what happened to this concept Taxi and why did it not go ahead???
Fast forward ten years to 2010:
Back in 2010 (7th June), a Hydrogen Taxi was presented for inspection at City Hall, under the banner: Black Cabs Go Green; vehicles were being readied for 2012 Olympics.
A full performance, zero-emissions Fuel Cell Hybrid London taxi was unveiled on 7 June at London's City Hall, powered by leading fuel cell technology from Intelligent Energy. The Company, which was originally a spin-out from Loughborough University, joined forces with Lotus Engineering, LTI Vehicles and TRW Conekt to produce the ground-breaking vehicle, with funding provided by the Technology Strategy Board.
London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Chair of the London Hydrogen Partnership, Kit Malthouse, who unveiled the zero emissions fuel cell hybrid taxi at London’s City Hall, said, "The black cab is a much loved London icon, but it is also a significant source of pollution especially in the centre of the city. This prototype Fuel Cell Black Cab, which emits only water from its tailpipe, is an exciting glimpse of how hydrogen technology could soon play a vital role in cleaning up air quality for urban dwellers.”
Later that year, Transport for London started to operate five hydrogen-fuel cell buses, and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said he was committed to working with manufacturers to make all taxis operating in London zero tail-pipe emissions by 2020. So.....what happened to the zero emission Hydrogen Taxi???
After two years of trials around the capital (2010-2012), a small fleet of Hydrogen fuel cell powered London Taxis (TX4) were used during the Olympics but then disappeared without trace, what happened to these vehicles and what was the outcome of the trials ???
December 2015 London Private Hire company Green Tomato Cars announces London’s first hydrogen-fuelled minicabs to take to the streets, powered by an engine so green, their only “emission” is water pure enough to drink.
Moving on to the end of 2019:
Green Tomatoes announce their Hydrogen powered Toyotas have completed over 1,000,000 miles.
The private hire company took on 25 Mirai to add to its original 2, after starting a trial with two cars in 2015. Building on this success, Green Tomato Cars has added a further 25 Mirai to its fleet this month, giving it the largest zero-emission passenger fleet in the UK.
The Mirai is the flagship of the company’s Zero Emission Executive service, serving 2,000 corporate clients. Green Tomato Cars was the first company of its kind in Europe to take on hydrogen fuel cell cars and has carried 80,000 passengers in Toyota’s fuel cell EV.
Each car drives an average of 120 miles per day, with average fare-paying journeys of 8-10 miles.
Before taking on the latest batch of 25 FCEVs, its previous 27 Mirai cars had travelled one million miles, carrying 80,000 passengers, with each vehicle saving more than four times its own weight in CO2, equivalent to 7.6 tonnes per car.
“So far, the trial has shown that Mirai FCEVs are operating effectively as zero tailpipe emission taxis in London, requiring only very minor operational adjustments,” says Peter Speers, principal technical specialist at Cenex, which is a partner in the Zefer initiative.
He says one of the issues with FCEV uptake is that their upfront cost is considerably higher than for a comparable diesel: the Mirai, for example, has a P11D price of £65,945.
Anyone else think we missed the boat on this one ???
No comments:
Post a Comment