Honda Opens Hydrogen Refuelling Station in Swindon (Updated with Video)
20 Sep 2011
Today Honda officially opened its first UK hydrogen refuelling
station, located at its manufacturing site in Swindon. The project
has been delivered in partnership with industrial gas company BOC
and Forward Swindon and offers both 350 and 700 bar refuelling -
the first of its kind in the UK. A range of fuel cell vehicles were
on display at the launch including a Honda FCX Clarity, a
Riversimple urban concept car, a London black taxi and a London bus
among others. To demonstrate the station Thomas Brachmann, head of
electrical powertrain R&D at Honda Germany, refuelled the
Clarity, which took less than 4 minutes from start to finish.
The station will be
available for both public and fleet use through registration
with BOC and can fuel up to 50 cars per day in its current
form. BOC has space allocated to expand the station in the
future when fuel cell vehicles are on UK roads from 2015. Full
training will be provided to registered users by BOC to ensure all
safety regulations are met and payment is fully automated using a
swipe card system. The cost of refuelling was said to be equivalent
to filling a conventional diesel car, though the price of hydrogen
will fall as demand increases in the future.
The full event report of today's opening can be downloaded here.
Image: Dan Carter/Fuel Cell Today
Update: Honda has released the following
video which details the new station and provides some background on
the FCX Clarity.
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