Wrightbus showcases fuel cell electric bus in the UK

Wrightbus says its double deck bus uses fuel cell technology to deliver zero emissions while in operation. The StreetDeck fuel cell electric vehicle was displayed at the UK’s Euro Bus Expo 2018 in Birmingham. Fuel cell technology mixes hydrogen and compressed air (oxygen) in a chemical process to generate electric power to drive. The company says the vehicle comes with an extended storage option which increases its range from 200 to 265 miles. Also, the bus can be refuelled in seven minutes. Stre
November 7, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
6616 Wrightbus says its double deck bus uses fuel cell technology to deliver zero emissions while in operation. The StreetDeck fuel cell electric vehicle was displayed at the UK’s Euro Bus Expo 2018 in Birmingham.


Fuel cell technology mixes hydrogen and compressed air (oxygen) in a chemical process to generate electric power to drive.

The company says the vehicle comes with an extended storage option which increases its range from 200 to 265 miles. Also, the bus can be refuelled in seven minutes.

StreetDeck operates on a Ballard FCveloCity fuel cell, a 189 Siemens drivetrain and a 48 kW traction battery pack. It can carry 64 seated passengers and 21 standing.

Also, the bus comes with lightweight hydrogen storage tanks and an automatic battery management system which monitors and balances the stored power while in operation.

Earlier this year, Wrightbus was chosen as the supplier of double deck buses in the UK for the Joint Initiative for Hydrogen Vehicles in Europe (JIVE).

The JIVE initiative’s stated ambition is to promote the development of fuel cell technology in buses throughout Europe. The scheme is supported by grants from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking – a public-private partnership which supports research and development of the technology.

In the UK, up to 50 fuel cell powered buses have been operating in Birmingham, Aberdeen and London. In addition, the scope of the project includes the deployment of 139 vehicles across nine locations in Europe.

In %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 35082 0 link-external May false /sections/general/news/ballard-to-deploy-40-fuel-cell-modules-to-power-buses-in-germany/ false false%>, Ballard Power Systems deployed 40 FCveloCity-HD fuel cell modules to power buses under JIVE. The delivery was part of an agreement with bus manufacturer bus manufacturer Van Hool in Belgium.

Van Hool plans to deploy 30 buses in Germany with the Regionalverkehr Köln transit agency in Cologne, and the remaining ten buses with WSW Mobil in Wuppertal.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Connected cones make for safer sites
    May 31, 2013
    David Crawford welcomes new lives for old road safety products. Traffic cones and barrels have traditionally been on the bottom shelf of the road construction and maintenance industry, typically forming visible soft safety barriers for temporary works at a lower cost than concrete alternatives. On both sides of the Atlantic, however, they are fast gaining new roles as instrumented components in advanced construction safety arrays. The EC-sponsored €1 million (US$1.31 million) Safelane collaborative innovati
    Read More
  • Alpha Technologies displays PowerAgent system
    September 8, 2014
    Alpha Technologies, a leading supplier of power solutions for ITS and traffic applications, is here at the ITS World Congress Detroit to introduce the PowerAgent Remote Battery Management System to provide real-time measurement and control of batteries at ITS sites.
    Read More
  • Voi launches electric scooters in Lisbon
    December 13, 2018
    Swedish company Voi has launched its electric scooters in Lisbon as part of a wider ambition to expand in Europe. In addition to Portugal, the company says it plans to bring its e-scooters to Italy and France over the coming months. Frederico Venâncio, general manager of Voi Portugal, says Voi riders in Sweden have travelled more than 450,000km in Stockholm, and the company expects to see similar growth in Portugal. “Although we want to expand rapidly, we want to do it in a sustainable way and in line
    Read More
  • Lime and rivals form Nordic Micromobility Association
    August 29, 2019
    Lime and its competitors Tier and Voi have formed the Nordic Micromobility Association to promote safety standards for electric scooters. The association will seek to strengthen relationships between Nordic cities and micromobility businesses as well as reduce emissions. Earlier this year, Voi announced its plans to launch e-scooters in Lisbon as part of a wider ambition to expand in Europe. The association’s members are not the only companies working to improve the safety of e-scooters. Last ye
    Read More

Highlighted Content