Periodic Reporting for period 5 - ZEFER (Zero Emission Fleet vehicles For European Roll-out)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2023-08-31
Despite significant support for the hydrogen mobility sector, there remains low take-up of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and vehicle sales remain low. This is a significant issue for the commercialisation of the sector, as whilst sales volumes are low, vehicle production costs and prices remain high. The lack of demand for hydrogen also damages the business case for investment in early hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS). The ZEFER project proposes a solution to this issue. The objective of ZEFER is to demonstrate viable business cases for captive fleets of FCEVs in operations which can realise value from hydrogen vehicles, for example by intensive use of vehicles and HRS, or by avoiding pollution charges in city centres with applications where the refueling characteristics of FCEVs suit the duty cycles of the vehicles. ZEFER aims to drive sales of FCEVs in these applications to other cities, thereby increasing sales volumes of FCEVs and improving the business case for HRS serving these captive fleets.
As initially planned by the project, ZEFER deployed 180 FCEVs in Paris, Copenhagen and London. 170 FCEVs were operated as taxi or private hire vehicles, and the remaining 10 were used by the police. The vehicle customers were all partners in the project to facilitate the quick deployment of vehicles (the majority of vehicles was deployed by the end of 2018) and FCEV mileage was accumulated rapidly (between April 2018 and August 2023, the ZEFER taxis and police vehicles in London, Paris and Copenhagen have reported over 15 million of kilometres driven despite the Covid pandemic . These applications mean that vehicle performance was be tested to the limit, allowing a demonstration of the technical readiness of new generation FCEVs for high usage applications. As planned at the beginning of the project, the vehicles were supported by existing and planned HRS. ZEFER complemented these ambitious deployments with robust data collection, analysis of the business cases and technical performance of the deployments.
As initially planned by the project, ZEFER deployed 180 FCEVs in Paris, Copenhagen and London. 170 FCEVs were operated as taxi or private hire vehicles, and the remaining 10 were used by the police. The vehicle customers were all partners in the project to facilitate the quick deployment of vehicles (the majority of vehicles was deployed by the end of 2018) and FCEV mileage was accumulated rapidly (between April 2018 and August 2023, the ZEFER taxis and police vehicles in London, Paris and Copenhagen have reported over 15 million of kilometres driven despite the Covid pandemic . These applications mean that vehicle performance was be tested to the limit, allowing a demonstration of the technical readiness of new generation FCEVs for high usage applications. As planned at the beginning of the project, the vehicles were supported by existing and planned HRS. ZEFER complemented these ambitious deployments with robust data collection, analysis of the business cases and technical performance of the deployments.
Key progress during the 5th period of the project and final results include:
• Operation of the fleet of 60+ vehicles by HYPE continued in Paris. HYPE is in the process of deploying additional vehicles in Paris with a fleet of 350 FCEVs overall today and the objective to meet their target of 10,000 FCEVs in service by the end of 2025, with an associated distribution network of 26 stations within Paris to fuel the vehicles. Plans are also already in place for HYPE to replicate the taxi business model in 7 other cities in Europe: Le Mans, Bordeaux, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto.
• Green Tomato Cars de-fleeted 25 of their taxis in April 2022 and the other 25 in October 2022, due to the end of their respective leasing periods. Their vehicles amassed 5.2 million km, which means that they surpassed the 90.000 km per vehicle KPI by 15% (if the KPI is interpreted as an average per vehicle for the whole fleet).
• Following technical issues with the hydrogen trailers that were supplying Prags Boulevard station in Copenhagen, the HRS is closed since June 2023. Overall 60 vehicles have been deployed in Copenhagen as part of ZEFER, with an additional 28 vehicles under H2ME2.
• The ZEFER vehicles in service have been operated rigorously in everyday operation and have driven over 15 million kilometers as of August 2023 despite the Covid crisis. Milestone M6 (vehicles driven > 10 million km) has been reached before the end of P5, it was actually achieved by the end of Q3 2022. The vehicles have performed exceptionally well, with fleet drivers and operators noting a positive experience with the technology.
• HRS in France, in the UK and in Denmark have dispensed 149 000 kg of H2 to ZEFER vehicles as of June 2023.
• The plan for the foreseen upgrades of the HRS has evolved in the last period of the project. Upgrades have been performed in previous periods - in Roissy (Paris Nord) in November 2021 and in Zaventem in June 2020 with the objective to run the HRS more quickly, safely and efficiently. In the last period of the project, operators have assessed whether upgrades are necessary and in some cases have favoured plans for new sites which were deemed more suitable to meet the users’ needs. All upgrades necessary to support the deployment of FCEVs in the project have been completed.
• Additional technical reports (quarterly, annual and public) have been carried out by data analysis partner, Cenex. In order to reflect the vehicle swap between the ZEFER and the H2ME2 projects, Cenex updated the most recent versions of the reports. The peak of number of data-reporting vehicles (104) was reached in Q2 2022, due to the increase in vehicles through DRIVR’s deployment in Copenhagen alongside HYPE and GTC’s deployments.
• Key reports have also been produced as part of the ‘stakeholder acceptance’ work package (WP4), this includes the final iteration of the costumer value proposition and on the ‘Vehicle user feedback provided to WP3’ and as part of WP3, the final version of ‘Summary and lessons learned from business cases tested in this project’ and ‘Strategic recommendations for captive fleet business models supporting commercialisation of FCEVs in Europe’.
• Dissemination work has been on-going until the project end. Work has included an update of the dissemination plan, the project website and brochure. Social media has also been used as a key dissemination tool throughout the period. A final roundtable with policy makers was held in Paris in June 2023.
• Effective coordination enabled the project to manage deployment risks and to find an alternative for the deployment of the third site (in Copenhagen) and also a solution for achieving the project goal of 180 vehicles deployed.
• Operation of the fleet of 60+ vehicles by HYPE continued in Paris. HYPE is in the process of deploying additional vehicles in Paris with a fleet of 350 FCEVs overall today and the objective to meet their target of 10,000 FCEVs in service by the end of 2025, with an associated distribution network of 26 stations within Paris to fuel the vehicles. Plans are also already in place for HYPE to replicate the taxi business model in 7 other cities in Europe: Le Mans, Bordeaux, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto.
• Green Tomato Cars de-fleeted 25 of their taxis in April 2022 and the other 25 in October 2022, due to the end of their respective leasing periods. Their vehicles amassed 5.2 million km, which means that they surpassed the 90.000 km per vehicle KPI by 15% (if the KPI is interpreted as an average per vehicle for the whole fleet).
• Following technical issues with the hydrogen trailers that were supplying Prags Boulevard station in Copenhagen, the HRS is closed since June 2023. Overall 60 vehicles have been deployed in Copenhagen as part of ZEFER, with an additional 28 vehicles under H2ME2.
• The ZEFER vehicles in service have been operated rigorously in everyday operation and have driven over 15 million kilometers as of August 2023 despite the Covid crisis. Milestone M6 (vehicles driven > 10 million km) has been reached before the end of P5, it was actually achieved by the end of Q3 2022. The vehicles have performed exceptionally well, with fleet drivers and operators noting a positive experience with the technology.
• HRS in France, in the UK and in Denmark have dispensed 149 000 kg of H2 to ZEFER vehicles as of June 2023.
• The plan for the foreseen upgrades of the HRS has evolved in the last period of the project. Upgrades have been performed in previous periods - in Roissy (Paris Nord) in November 2021 and in Zaventem in June 2020 with the objective to run the HRS more quickly, safely and efficiently. In the last period of the project, operators have assessed whether upgrades are necessary and in some cases have favoured plans for new sites which were deemed more suitable to meet the users’ needs. All upgrades necessary to support the deployment of FCEVs in the project have been completed.
• Additional technical reports (quarterly, annual and public) have been carried out by data analysis partner, Cenex. In order to reflect the vehicle swap between the ZEFER and the H2ME2 projects, Cenex updated the most recent versions of the reports. The peak of number of data-reporting vehicles (104) was reached in Q2 2022, due to the increase in vehicles through DRIVR’s deployment in Copenhagen alongside HYPE and GTC’s deployments.
• Key reports have also been produced as part of the ‘stakeholder acceptance’ work package (WP4), this includes the final iteration of the costumer value proposition and on the ‘Vehicle user feedback provided to WP3’ and as part of WP3, the final version of ‘Summary and lessons learned from business cases tested in this project’ and ‘Strategic recommendations for captive fleet business models supporting commercialisation of FCEVs in Europe’.
• Dissemination work has been on-going until the project end. Work has included an update of the dissemination plan, the project website and brochure. Social media has also been used as a key dissemination tool throughout the period. A final roundtable with policy makers was held in Paris in June 2023.
• Effective coordination enabled the project to manage deployment risks and to find an alternative for the deployment of the third site (in Copenhagen) and also a solution for achieving the project goal of 180 vehicles deployed.
All targets and expected results have been achieved – see last technical report for details.