Companies roll out hydrogen-powered fleet
Eight New Zealand companies will share a fleet of four hydrogen-powered cars in what is being described as the first commercial application of hydrogen fuel cell technology in New Zealand.
Toyota will provide The Warehouse, Air NZ, Saatchi and Saatchi, TVNZ, Beca, Westpac, Spark and Z Energy with Mirai cars which run off green hydrogen (hydrogen produced from renewable energy).
The fuel cell in Toyota Mirai combines hydrogen and oxygen in a chemical reaction. Electricity, a by-product of the chemical reaction, is used to power the car’s electric motor. The only byproduct from powering the vehicle is water.
Hydrogen fuel cell is a tried and tested technology with more than 11,000 Mirai having been sold in Europe, North America and Japan.
A fully fuelled Mirai has a range of nearly 500 kilometres using 4.6 kilograms of hydrogen plus energy from its regenerative braking system, which is similar to technology found in hybrid vehicles.
A Toyota spokesperson said there were 10 Mirai in the country but the four in the trial were the first to be used on New Zealand roads.
The cars would be located at Auckland sites which have stations that can fill the cars with hydrogen, she said.
Staff from the companies involved would be able to access the cars using CityHop technology, she said.
The number of cars in the fleet might be increased after enough time has passed to assess how the trial has gone, she said.
Toyota NZ chief executive Neeraj Lala said it was the first commercial application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in New Zealand.
He said Toyota was looking at other opportunities to trial the applications of hydrogen technology outside the automotive sector.
The car-sharing trial, dubbed the Hydrogen Project, begins on May 1.
Lala said it would be interesting to see how the car sharing would work. in practice. ‘‘This trial also showcases the ability for large companies to join together to share their fleets, which in the future could lead to larger reductions in carbon emissions when you are talking about sharing say 100 cars.’’
Hydrogen could store more energy in less weight, making the fuel cell system suitable for vehicles with heavy payloads and long ranges, he said. Fast refuelling also benefited commercial fleets and other vehicles in near-continuous use such as forklifts, taxis and car-sharing schemes, he said.
Hydrogen was one of many new powertrain options being developed by Toyota in its transition to a low carbon future.
Recently Toyota revealed 16 new battery electric models and committed to producing 3.5 million electric cars per year by 2030.
Beca chief executive Greg Lowe said it had a goal to reduce its direct emissions associated with work travel by 50% by 2030.
The Hydrogen Project complemented its strategy to use a mix of car-share options and introducing more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to supplement its existing electric vehicle fleet, he said.
Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran said green hydrogen would likely play a big part in Air NZ’s future.
‘‘To help decarbonise our domestic and regional fleet, we are exploring green-hydrogen and battery electric aircraft with the ambition to introduce them into our fleet from 2030.’’
TVNZ chief executive Simon Power said its fleet was 50% plugin hybrid electric, and 4% hybrid. ‘‘But we know we can take this further.’’
The Warehouse Group chief executive Nick Grayston said it was transitioning its light fleet to be fully carbon zero by 2025.