Hydrogen vehicle education programme planned by Arval

By Gareth Roberts

22 October 2018

Arval has announced a new programme of initiatives to increase awareness and understanding of hydrogen vehicles and the potential they provide.

For schools, Arval is producing a range of resources for Year 10 and Year 11 pupils directly linked to the GCSE Chemistry element of the National Curriculum. These are being created to give school pupils a greater understanding of fuel cell technology and the role it plays across a range of real-world applications.

At the same time, Arval will be running six free-to-attend roadshows across the country to share their learnings of the benefits and practicalities of hydrogen vehicles with both businesses and consumers.

In the past 18-months, Arval has been able to develop real-world knowledge of hydrogen vehicles as chair of the Car Working Group for Swindon’s Hydrogen Hub. Thought to be one of the UK’s leading hydrogen trials, Arval (as the lead for the vehicle stream) has been running its own Toyota Mirai to assess its capability, as well as leasing a small number of hydrogen vehicles to local businesses, all subsidised by the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles.

Elliott Woodhead, deputy general manager at Arval, said: “Leasing more than 160,000 vehicles in the UK, Arval has a long history of pioneering low carbon vehicle technologies and we’re excited to be leading the way once again as hydrogen fuel cell cars enter the market.

“As an emerging technology, we need to understand it so that we can advise end users. At the same time, we have a great opportunity to share our knowledge with future generations.”

He continued: “Alongside the actual vehicles, being at the centre of the Hydrogen Hub has given us access to a network of experts and influencers in this area including local and national government, manufacturers and hydrogen providers – giving us valuable insight which we are keen to share.”

Dates and venues for the hydrogen roadshows will be announced via the Arval website and social media channels in the coming weeks.