London chooses American buses for hydrogen fleet
London was one of the first cities to use fuel-cell buses provided by Daimler, as consequence of the CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) pilot program a few years ago. Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, has decided that the program was satisfactory enough and has ordered the purchase of new vehicles, with a target of five percent of city vehicles running on Hydrogen by 2015.
Despite other projects in Europe using local manufacturers, London is buying ten American buses, made by ISE Corp, although five will have a fuel-cell system provided by Ballard (which already provides them for British Columbia) and five will have modified ICE engines that run on hydrogen. Both models will also have additional hybrid features, with batteries that will store braking energy.
The project is expected to cost about 10 million UK pounds (about $20 million), which includes a full 5-year warranty for the buses.
[Source: Moteurnature]
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