Fuel cell electric vehicles: Vauxhall’s Vivaro-e Hydrogen

Vauxhall’s Vivaro-e Hydrogen- your future lease van?

Vauxhall to add hydrogen van in addition to its UK all-electric van line-up.

A hydrogen powered vehicle. Sounds like science fiction, right?

It may seem futuristic, but if you’re wanting to go green, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are an interesting alternative if you’re not quite sure about an electric vehicle (EV).

Although not readily or widely available as an electric van lease, there are pros and cons to FCEV technology.

What are fuel cell electric vehicles?

Instead of an electric battery, FCEVs are powered by hydrogen. The electricity is produced from a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell stack.

FCEVs are becoming popular because, like EVs, they don’t generate harmful emissions- the only by-product is water vapour and the main differences between FCEVs and EVs are infrastructure, fuel and availability.

Refueling

With electric range and long charging times being a big deal breaker for electric vehicles, refueling is probably a serious advantage of an FCEV when compared to an EV.

Filling up a hydrogen tank is a lot quicker than charging an EV battery and will be like filling up your car with petrol or diesel. You just need to pull up to a hydrogen fuel station, connect the hose and your tank should be full in a few minutes.

It’s also possible to have multiple hydrogen tanks on board. Hydrogen can be highly flammable, but these tanks are thick-walled and have been tested to ensure crash safety.

Introducing Vauxhall’s Vivaro-e Hydrogen

Based on the existing electric Vivaro-e, the plug-in Vivaro-e Hydrogen has the same driving manners as its battery-powered twin.

With a claimed range of up to 249 miles the fuel cell will get you where you need to be, but if you do run out of hydrogen, the 10.5 kWh battery is capable of delivering 31 miles on its own too.

Not to worry, the hydrogen fuelled van also has ultra-rapid refilling capabilities. So, it only takes three minutes to get a full tank.

The van doesn’t compromise on space, with a cargo volume of 5.3m3 in the standard model and 6.1m3 in the long-bodied version, the hydrogen fuel tanks are located under the floor while the battery is underneath the front seats. It also has a healthy 1100kg payload capacity.

Already available in some European markets, the Vivaro-e Hydrogen is expected to arrive in the UK in late 2022 for fleet evaluation trials in 2023.

Is there a future for hydrogen powered vans?

As the future of automotive power heads away from internal combustion engines, the Vivaro-e Hydrogen would be easy to recommend for those wanting an emission-free van.

The current flaw of FCEVs is the limited number of public hydrogen fueling stations currently available in the UK, of which there are just a handful.

Fuel cell and battery technologies will co-exist in the future, but once there’s more enabling infrastructure, the adoption of FCEVs is likely to increase.