First Hydrogen vans receive certification

First Hydrogen, an automotive and energy developer, has announced that its first zero emission light commercial vehicles (LCVs) have been certified legal on British roads by the Vehicle Certification Authority.

The vehicles will now be able to undertake customer trials on public roads commencing January 2023 for a period of 24 months, during which the company expects to collect significant proprietary data from fleet owners and to capture high-level interest for future orders. The vans will be trialled in real-world conditions with major fleet operators initially in the UK and enable First Hydrogen to publicly showcase its leading design and accelerate the adoption by light commercial vehicle owners of fuel cell-powered vehicles to replace ageing diesel fleets. A total of 13 UK fleet operators in various industries including telecoms, utilities, infrastructure, delivery, grocery and healthcare have signed up to participate in the trials.

These two demonstrator vehicles will showcase the advantages fuel cell electric vehicles have over battery electric vehicles in terms of range and refuelling speed. First Hydrogen vehicles offer 400-600km of range on a single refuelling, which takes a matter of minutes. The certification is a significant milestone for the company and will help with further approvals required as First Hydrogen scales up its vehicle demonstrator programme to trial the vehicles in the European Union, United States and Canada. The global light commercial vehicle market is projected to reach $786.5bn by 2030 and First Hydrogen’s vehicles will help the sector meet zero emission targets.

First Hydrogen is also working in parallel to arrange green hydrogen generation and distribution under its “Hydrogen as a Service” or HaaS program to provide a holistic solution to the market. First Hydrogen’s plans are underway in the UK, Europe, and North America to provide this solution.

Steve Gill, CEO of Automotive for First Hydrogen, says: “This is an important step which validates our engineering and technical expertise. The whole team has worked hard to deliver this certification and we can now move forward with the important customer trials commencing in early 2023.”

Balraj Mann, Chairman and CEO of First Hydrogen Corp., states: “We are proud of our Automotive team and their recent accomplishments. I am excited about the groundwork laid by the whole team and, as we move forward, executing our business plan in the coming months. Green hydrogen is becoming a clean alternative answer to fossil fuels.”