First Hydrogen steps up zero-emission van development

First Hydrogen has received certification from the VCA for its new zero-emission van and plans to begin trials with UK fleets.

The certification is a significant milestone for the Company and will help with further approvals required as First Hydrogen scales up its vehicle demonstrator program to trial the vehicles in the European Union, United States and Canada.

Steve Gill, CEO of Automotive for First Hydrogen, says: "This is an important step which validates our engineering and technical expertise. The whole team has worked hard to deliver this certification and we can now move forward with the important customer trials commencing in early 2023."

The vehicles, which are based on the MAN TGE, will undertake customer trials on public roads from January 2023 for a period of 24 months.

First Hydrogen said it expects to collect significant proprietary data from fleet owners and to capture high-level interest for future orders during the trial period.

A total of 13 UK fleet operators in various industries including telecoms, utilities, infrastructure, delivery, grocery and healthcare have signed up to participate in the trials.

The vehicles offer 250-370 miles of range on a single refuelling, which takes a matter of minutes.

First Hydrogen is also working in parallel to arrange green hydrogen generation and distribution under its "Hydrogen as a Service" or Haas program to provide a holistic solution to the market. First Hydrogen's plans are underway in the UK, Europe, and North America to provide this solution.

Balraj Mann, chairman and CEO of First Hydrogen Corp. states: "We are proud of our Automotive team and their recent accomplishments. I am excited about the groundwork laid by the whole team and, as we move forward, executing our business plan in the coming months. Green hydrogen is becoming a clean alternative answer to fossil fuels."