The president of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso presented the first hydrogen-fueled bus that will circulate in Spain. It is a vehicle that uses an electric propulsion system with a fuel cell powered by hydrogen, a pioneering and innovative technology that has zero CO2 emissions and guarantees autonomy that allows the bus to operate on a standard urban line without downtime.
“Today the Community of Madrid begins to test the transport of the future, transport without pollution. Today begins a revolution in transport,” said Díaz Ayuso in a ceremony held in the Puerta del Sol square with the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Infrastructure Ángel Garrido and the president of ALSA Jorge Cosmen. The head of the Regional Government added that she hopes that in a short time this type of vehicle will be transferred to real operations.
For his part, Garrido indicated that the Community wants to be a benchmark for innovation also in transport and that therefore, through the Regional Transport Consortium, it is working “to accelerate the addition of new environmentally-friendly technologies to our fleets of urban and interurban buses.”
The vehicle presented is a 12-meter long Caetano H2 city bus. It has an integral low floor, which makes it fully accessible, and three double access doors. Its capacity is 62 people: 35 seated, 26 standing, and space for a person with reduced mobility. It has a range of 400 kilometers and its refueling time is similar to that of a conventional bus. It does not produce CO2 emissions, the only thing it emits is water vapor, and the traction is completely silent.
Operated by the ALSA Group, the bus will carry out field tests in urban service to study its possible incorporation, in the future, to the Consortium’s lines. This trial is the first step in a broader project that the company is going to start from the last quarter of 2021 for the transition from bus mobility to hydrogen vehicles in the Corredor del Henares area.
Currently, the Regional Transport Consortium fleet is made up of 2,063 vehicles and has 28% buses powered by alternative fuels, such as natural gas and electric hybrids. The fleet has an average age of 4.9 years and is 100% accessible.
Source: Community of Madrid
