Snam, Toyota, and CaetanoBus have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to begin a broad collaboration aimed at promoting and expediting the use of hydrogen-powered mobility.
United in their belief that hydrogen plays a critical role in transportation’s decarbonisation process, the companies signing the agreement – Snam and its subsidiary Snam4Mobility, Toyota Motor Europe and Toyota Motor Italia, and CaetanoBus – will pool their resources and expertise to explore and develop projects aimed at promoting, enabling, and accelerating the adoption of hydrogen mobility for heavy and light transport.
Alessio Torelli, Chief Mobility Officer of Snam declares: “This collaboration aims to boost the use of hydrogen as a key energy vector to enable widespread decarbonisation in the mobility sector. The synergies with car manufacturers and with the world of public transport, combined with Snam’s distinctive skills in the infrastructure field, will be decisive in accelerating the development of the hydrogen supply chain for the benefit of national and global climate objectives. With this agreement, we aim to build an alliance between operators in the energy and transport sectors to offer end users competitive sustainable hydrogen mobility solutions”.
Luigi Ksawery Luca’, CEO of Toyota Motor Italia declares: “We are very pleased to join forces with Snam and CaetanoBus, with whom we share the commitment to a more sustainable future. As a Toyota Group, we have always been committed at a global level to the creation of sustainable mobility, which in the long term will see the increasingly widespread use of zero-emission vehicles and mobility solutions, which is why we have been investing in hydrogen propulsion systems for over 25 years. In fact, we believe that hydrogen plays a crucial role in the decarbonisation process of our society. The presence of an adequate hydrogen refueling infrastructure is a necessary condition for developing its full potential for mobility. For this it will be essential that the main players in the production and distribution system work in synergy, and this agreement moves exactly in this direction”.
Patrícia Vasconcelos, CEO of CaetanoBus declares: “Collaborations like this are very important to unite different companies, with different products, but with the same goals and vision for the future: decarbonisation and better lives for the people around the cities. CaetanoBus is a manufacure of bus and coaches since 1946, but focus on electric mobility for 10 years now, since 2018 developing hydrogen-powered mobility solution and it has been a pleasure to learn and be inspired by Toyota’s practices and knowledge. This is another step into hydrogen society and to build an entire value chain.”
The agreement may result in the definition of specific “end-to-end” hydrogen mobility projects to be executed in Italy and other European countries, with the objective of assisting and benefiting public administrations, local communities, businesses, and private organizations. The initiatives might span the entire value chain, from hydrogen to distribution and refueling infrastructures to the introduction of fleets of buses, logistics vehicles, and cars, facilitated in part by the availability of Toyota Group’s KINTO mobility services.
Additionally, the collaboration enables for cooperative analysis, scouting, and testing of innovative technological solutions, as well as the establishment of agreements in non-mobility-related sectors, such as the use of hydrogen for stationary applications and cogeneration.
Eventually, the agreement will be the subject of further enforceable agreements that the parties will specify in accordance with applicable law and regulatory standards.