LOCAL HYDROGEN CARS FOR LOCAL FUEL STATIONS

FCEV sales haven’t got going in the UK because their makers have been trying to sell us the wrong models, reckons Hugo Spowers, managing director of British hydrogen car company Riversimple.

“Toyota and Hyundai aren’t pushing their hydrogen programmes, because there’s no infrastructure,” he told

Autocar. “If you build an intercity limo like the Mirai, you need 300 filling stations to create a credible market for your car, whereas if you build a local vehicle, one filling station is enough.”

Riversimple’s Rasa FCEV, scheduled for production in 2024, is a two-seat, coupéstyle runabout with a projected range of 300 miles, but it’s no long-distance cruiser. Instead, it’s designed for weekly fills around one local hydrogen pump.

Riversimple is talking to local councils, independent fuel retailers and hydrogen hub developer Element 2 to work out where would be best to install pumps and therefore where to sell the first batch of Rasas.

“We’re working to identify eight to 10 launch locations to make a strong business case for a refueller,” said Spowers. “We put 100 cars in that market, then they have 100 captive customers.”

He hopes that this single pump would then attract locally run hydrogen vans, buses and even lorries.

“Concentrating demand for all these companies is key to building a business case,” he said. “It’s absolutely delusional to think anyone will roll out a nationwide infrastructure in the hope that vehicles populate quickly enough to make it profitable.”