12/08/13

Microcab at Company Car in Action

The Hydrogen Experience at Millbrook (UK), June 11th 2013

1,000 fleet managers and decision-makers were given the chance to drive the Microcab vehicles on the Millbrook urban circuit at the two day 2013 Company Car In Action event.

A forum was also organised to discuss the technology and answer questions with input from the SWARM partners: Microcab, as well as Coventry University and the University of Birmingham.

Full Fleet News article available here

The Microcab vehicle is a small 4 seater designed as a city car. It can achieve a top speed of 55 mph, a top range of 180 miles and is very frugal in energy use. In addition to being a very environmentally friendly vehicle, since its only exhaust is water, the great advantage of the vehicle is its fast and easy refueling (3 to 4 minutes), combined with a long range.

The light freight Fuel Cell Microcab van was also unveiled at the show and fills the gap existing between the need for environmentally friendly vans and the current OEM’s offer. The need for low emission, long range, fast refuelling vehicle for fleet operators was highlighted by a UK Government report published this year. Workshops held with a group of fleet operators showed that “Environmental performance is important to operators, both because of commitments to environmentally responsible behaviour and because of the current structure of vehicle taxation which favours low emission vehicles”.

Lisa tried the Microcab vehicle, she says: 

“It was great to be able to try the vehicles. It pretty much felt like being in a normal vehicle except that you are in a zero emissions vehicle! Interest in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles is clearly growing and the increasing number of demonstration projects will help to gather evidence on the environmental and economic benefits of the vehicles, as well as on the technology’s readiness for market“. 

Ten Microcab vehicles will be deployed on the road in the Midlands through the SWARM project, alongside a hydrogen refueling station in Birmingham that will have the capacity to dispense up to 200 kg of hydrogen per day, an equivalent of 100 fills each day.

The SWARM project is interested in talking with fleet decision makers who would like more information on the project or who would like to be involved in the field trials. Please contact the project on birmingham[at]swarm-project.eu.

 

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