EAV chosen for hydrogen-powered deliveries in Aberdeen

Oxfordshire-based micro-mobility manufacturer Electric Assisted Vehicles Limited has been chosen for a unique engineering and operations project, working with the City of Aberdeen in Scotland. 

Supported by investment from the European Union and the Scottish Government and managed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the project is part of a programme to investigate the use of hydrogen fuel cells for sustainable last-mile deliveries. 

The Interreg NWE’s Fuel Cell Cargo Pedelecs Project – or FCCP as it’s known – is aiming to validate the use of hydrogen fuel cell last-mile delivery vehicles in seven cities across Europe over 12 months from Q3 2021. Aberdeen, Stuttgart, Luxembourg and Munich are four of the seven cities in which 36 vehicles will be deployed as part of the validation process.

EAV will use their 2Cubed vehicle platform, pictured above, which is now in its third year of development, to run the fuel cell system. The 2Cubed is now operated by many household-name delivery businesses across Europe. And with the addition of the hydrogen fuel cell technology, it’s hoped to further validate an already highly efficient urban lightweight vehicle.

Comments Adam Barmby, CEO and Founder of EAV:

“The use of hydrogen fuel cells in the last or even mid-mile scenario is a very interesting proposition. Within EAV we observe the development of the rapidly growing Electric Vehicle market daily.  Apart from our concerns over the weight of the increasing number of battery-powered vehicles, we keep questioning where all these batteries are going to come from? 

“We’ve wanted to develop a hydrogen fuel cell option which requires a vehicle to have even less batteries as the electricity comes from the hydrogen reaction which is about as environmentally-friendly as you can get.”

Adds Leo Bethell, Head of Partnerships at EAV:

“We’re really excited to be working with the City of Aberdeen as a key part of this validation exercise. Every town and city across the globe must now look at significantly reducing emissions and providing a cleaner, safer environment for its inhabitants. 

“The COVID pandemic has actually advanced a number of projects to reduce vehicle traffic and reinforce the need for cleaner and safer cities and smaller, lighter urban commercial goods delivery vehicles are vital to that change.  This is a technically advanced project and it’s coming to a city which has been at the forefront of advanced engineering in Scotland for the last hundred or so years.”