Policy Focus

EU to roll out hydrogen vehicles by 2020

The EU could see hydrogen cars and buses on its roads by 2020 if a new public-private partnership takes off, according to research chief Janez Potocnik.

Speaking at the launch on Tuesday of the EU-wide partnership to speed up the deployment of hydrogen technology, he said, “The realities of the energy crisis are a constant thorn in the world’s side.

“In Europe just as in the world at large, security of energy supply, climate change, maintaining economic growth and the urgent need to develop and introduce alternative sustainable energy systems are factors that drive us to do research.”

In a six-year term the project, called a joint technology initiative, will get a €470m contribution from the EU, an amount to be matched by industry. The rest of the funding required to actually deploy the cars - and all the infrastructure that goes with them - would have to be made up by national and regional authorities.

However, the commissioner said that the technology is still a way off from being rolled out to the general public. “This is not an area where all the research has been completed and we can march it to market neatly packaged and ready for consumers.”

He admitted that the technologies behind fuel cells and hydrogen power are expensive – fuel cells rely on platinum to create the chemical reaction that produces power – and that they could be in danger of being labelled “luxury research”.

Another problem the introduction of such vehicles could face is the lack of infrastructure, such as ‘filling’ stations, on roads.

“We need momentum, not inertia,” he told journalists in Brussels. We know just how success for us can change energy technology forever, but we need to reach the layman with convincing messages.”