Teesside Hydrogen Vehicle Ecosystem

The Teesside Hydrogen Vehicle Ecosystem seeks to solve a problem that has constrained the development of the hydrogen mobility sector -- the inability to scale hydrogen supply infrastructure to achieve sufficient economies of scale to make the production and supply of hydrogen and vehicle support infrastructure affordable. The project's solution to this problem is to test the feasibility of a complementary multimodal approach, introducing a range of hydrogen heavy- and light-duty vehicles across the Tees Valley region, centred around the Tees Valley Airport.

Toyota GB, the project lead and a global leader in the hydrogen sector, will demonstrate several use cases for their pioneering fuel cell technology. It is planned for ten Toyota Mirais to be offered to operate in high utility commercial operations such as response units for the Tees Valley Police, health service and taxis. The same fuel cell technology will be showcased in a Caetano single-deck bus in operation with Stagecoach. Wrightbus will complement the deployment by providing a double-decker bus to Arriva, demonstrating the technology for heavy-duty and high duty-cycle applications. A Toyota supplied materials handling unit will also be operated at Tees Valley Airport.

The primary aim of this project is to show that fuel cell technology is effective in a wide range of applications and that a multimodal system at a city/regional level can help the hydrogen sector achieve scales of demand otherwise not possible. These hydrogen demands will also have a positive impact across the hydrogen value chain in the region, allowing local production facilities to scale up, achieving cost benefits. Additionally, the vehicles deployed as part of this project will displace fossil fuel vehicles and will abate ~2,100 tonnes of CO2 over the course of their operational lifetime (35 tonnes over the 3-month trial), while reducing local air and noise pollution.

The project positions the Tees Valley as the first multimodal hydrogen hub in the UK. The success of this project, and the city transport hub concept, paves the way for a series of similar hubs to be initiated, forming the backbone of a wider hydrogen network for mobility across the UK. The creation of these hubs can encourage the wider deployment of hydrogen vehicles across the UK, scaling up manufacturing and bringing costs down. This helps to start a new national green hydrogen industry, with associated high-value jobs, and positions the UK as a global leader in the hydrogen mobility market.