Currently reading: UK hydrogen initiative launched

Nissan involved in scheme which aims to make the UK a world leader as a hydrogen economy

Nissan has today played host to the first UK Hydrogen Network meeting, an attempt to make the UK one of the world’s leading hydrogen economies.

By 2015, the UK Hydrogen Network (UK-HyNet) wants to have a network of hydrogen infrastructure in place across the country.

Up until now, individual manufacturers and small groups have been working on their own hydrogen developments. Today’s moves aims to bring the developments under one umbrella organisation with the goal of giving the UK a hydrogen economy to compete on the world stage.

Part of this is the development of hydrogen fuel-cell cars, something which Nissan is currently trialling in the US and Japan and plans to have in volume production by 2015.

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Nissan is testing ten fuel cell vehicles in Japan and eight in the US, but fleet trials in the UK are unlikely in the near future because of the absence of a credible hydrogen infrastructure.

Nissan sees its involvement in UK-HyNet as a mid to long-term project. A Nissan source said: "hydrogen cars are nearer than you think."

Car industry involvement in UK-HyNet is not mutually exclusive to Nissan. Although it is the only manufacturer directly involved, others are invited to join in at any time and UK-HyNet findings will be shared across all parties involved.

Mark Tisshaw

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