Dortmund’s fleet of business cars now includes three new hydrogen-powered vehicles.
As early as 2020, the administrative board set the goal of utilizing significantly more environmentally friendly modes of transportation for all business trips and journeys in the future, organizing them in a sequentially emission-free manner and utilizing intermodal transportation whenever possible.
Hyundai Nexo vehicles were ultimately procured through a tender process for three fuel cell vehicles. They were delivered to the municipal mobility center in the first week of January and have been in use at the civil engineering office since then.
Hydrogen is the way of the future
Mayor Thomas Westphal put one of the vehicles through its paces and utilized it as his official transportation for one day. “Hydrogen is a critical future topic for the forthcoming energy transition, particularly in the domain of mobility. Vehicles such as this demonstrate how well it can already work. That is something we require more of.”
The Lord Mayor’s program for this day includes a visit to Vonovia’s “future energy center” in Bochum. There, he exchanged thoughts on the neighborhood’s innovative generation and distribution systems. There are intelligently combined photovoltaic systems, heat pumps with storage, hydrogen electrolyzers, fuel cells, and e-mobility charging stations.
Hydrogen vehicles are an addition to the city fleet
The fuel cell vehicles complement the electric vehicles used for official personal mobility in Dortmund. In comparison to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, hydrogen vehicles have a range of approximately 650 kilometers and a refueling period of approximately five minutes.
The Civil Engineering Office’s workers use cars from the Sunderweg depot for inspection and construction site visits, as well as for trips to external appointments for explosive ordnance removal, signage work, job preparation, and sinkhole repair. As a result, warning marks (adhesive foil) and mobile revolving beacons are also installed on the trucks.
Regular car refueling is possible immediately adjacent to the regular vehicle site at the public Shell station at the start of Schützenstraße, approximately 700 meters distant as the crow flies. Dortmund’s single hydrogen filling station is now operated by H2 MOBILITY Deutschland.
Dortmund’s hydrogen economy promotion strategy
The purchasing of the new cars is fully integrated into Dortmund’s strategy for boosting the hydrogen economy. At the hydrogen conference on November 24, 2021, it became evident that hydrogen will play a crucial role in the future of Dortmund. There was widespread consensus that it is critical to focus on hydrogen solutions now to enable a CO2-neutral energy source. In addition to battery electric vehicles, hydrogen or synthetic fuels produced from it may offer a solution for transportation. There are limitations to electromobility, particularly in the domain of big commercial vehicles, which necessitate the use of alternative technical solutions. Hydrogen-powered vehicles can be a game-changer in this regard.
Additional hydrogen-powered vehicles are on the way
Two further hydrogen-powered passenger cars, a Hyundai Nexo and a Toyota Mirai II, are being procured to further define the path to zero-emission mobility for staff. These vehicles will supplement the municipal mobility center’s initial vehicle pool in the inner city area. Additionally, they will serve as a complement to the vehicles already planned for mobility hubs and will be accessible to a broad spectrum of users (various departments u. the pool of the administrative board).
To achieve the core city’s goal of improved environmental quality and climate protection, the municipal administration is testing various climate-friendly modes of transportation in addition to pure battery-electric mobility. Along with the intermodal method of public transportation/vehicle/pedelec, it is critical to evaluate innovative drive technologies to accomplish the goal.
The financial scope has been entirely depleted
The Mobility Center, in collaboration with the Money Management department, obtained funding for the above-mentioned hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles through the Arnsberg district government’s “progres.nrw” program. With a maximum subsidy rate of 60% of eligible purchase expenses, a significant portion of the investment costs might be covered through public money.
The city of Dortmund used the entire grant purse, which is limited to 500,000 euros per applicant and year, to acquire more than 30 electric and fuel cell vehicles, as well as municipal charging infrastructure.
Arnulf Rybicki, head of the department of building and infrastructure, notes that expanding such financial measures is vital and critical in order to continue implementing electrification of the municipal vehicle fleet and the related ecological gains in the vehicle fleet system.
