Source: AFP
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At an extensive vehicle testing facility in the English countryside, a hydrogen-powered Grenadier 4×4 built by Ineos Automotive takes on steep and rough tracks, showing off its off-road capabilities.
Building the show car was “a really obvious thing” to do, the company’s CEO, Lynn Calder, told reporters at the unveiling this week.
The young, fast-growing company is part of the petrochemical and hydrogen producer Ineos giant, run by British billionaire and Manchester United shareholder Jim Ratcliffe.
“When we started the demo project, we saw an opportunity to show … that we have a completely uncompromising Grenadier in pure zero form,” he said at the Road to Decarbonisation event.
“Not this decade”
Calder warned that it will be some time before the car is available for purchase amid a limited supply of other hydrogen vehicles that help drive the path to net zero carbon emissions.
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Source: AFP
Ineos cites the high cost of mining Earth’s most abundant element and a lack of hydrogen refueling stations, especially in the UK, as barriers to the development of cars seen as greener than popular electric vehicles (EVs).
Is it the car “for tomorrow? No because there’s no infrastructure there,” Calder said.
“We’ll keep it warm, we’ll keep talking about it, we’ll see it as part of the future, but it doesn’t feel like it’s this decade,” he added.
Calder spoke from the UTAC vehicle test center in Millbrook, a village north of London, where the hydrogen vehicle quietly navigated dusty sharp bends and other obstacles.
Hydrogen cars work thanks to the purest form of gas combining with oxygen in a fuel cell to produce electricity. The only waste emitted is water vapor.
Hydrogen-powered buses, cars, trucks and vans are all on the market, made by a small number of companies, including Hyundai, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall.
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With governments pushing the automotive sector to go green, Ineos Automotive plans to launch an electric 4×4 in 2027, the Fusilier, to be sold alongside the current diesel and petrol versions of the Grenadier.
Speaking against the noise of sports cars accelerating from a distance, Calder pointed to the UK government’s aim to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035.
“Pipe Dream Design”
“I don’t think it works, I don’t think it’s possible, I think we’re going to fail,” he predicted, even as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed back the original 2030 date.
The Scottish CEO called it “a dream plan with no strategy around it, no idea how we’re going to get there”.
Source: AFP
In response, the Department for Transport said various incentives are being offered to enable the switch from polluting vehicles.
He added that demand for electric vehicles was “high”, even as recent figures showed evidence of a slowdown in sales in the UK and abroad.
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In terms of infrastructure, “there are over 61,000 public charging points across the UK — a 44 per cent increase on this time last year,” a department spokesman told AFP.
According to consultants LBST, only 921 hydrogen refueling stations were operating worldwide at the end of last year.
China was ahead with about 200 stations, or about twice as many as Europe’s leader Germany.
The UK currently has just six, even though hydrogen vehicles can offer longer range and are quicker to refuel than electric rivals.
Electoral impact
The country’s path to net zero is somewhat clouded by the outcome of this year’s general election.
Opinion polls widely suggest Sunak’s Conservatives will lose power to the main opposition Labor Party.
Labour’s plans for emissions targets have been called into question after leader Keir Starmer reneged on a pledge to spend £28 billion ($35.5 billion) a year on green infrastructure if in power.
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Greenpeace UK senior representative Paul Morozzo has called on the next government to bring back the 2030 ban and increase taxation on polluting vehicles.
It added that it must “get on with providing a proper network of EV charging points across the country and get the transition to electric vehicles back on the road.”
As for hydrogen, with so little infrastructure, the fuel is “not viable or desirable for mass transport” at the moment, he told AFP.
Source: AFP