Commission hastens plans for hydrogen cars in Europe

Paris, 11 October:  The approval process for hydrogen cars should be simplified to accelerate their arrival on the streets of Europe, the European Commission has said.

The Commission announced on Tuesday that it wants common standards to be applied to hydrogen cars throughout Europe to make it easier for manufacturers to commercialise the vehicles.

Under the proposed measures hydrogen vehicles would be approved through the same system as conventional vehicles, avoiding “complicated and costly approval procedures”, said the Commission.

The executive arm of the European Union also suggested setting up a fuel cells and hydrogen joint technology initiative (JTI) – a private-public partnership launched over the next six years with financial backing of €470 million ($670 million) from the EU and a similar sum from the private sector.

This initiative would accelerate the development of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies to allow their commercial roll-out between 2010 and 2020, claimed the Commission.

"The introduction of hydrogen vehicles has the potential to make Europe's air cleaner and reduce its dependency on fossil fuels,” said Günter Verheugen, EU Commission vice-president.

“Setting common standards will support the introduction of these vehicles, ensure high safety for citizens and boost the competitiveness of European manufacturers," he added.

The proposals were, unsurprisingly, welcomed by the European Hydrogen Association, but severely criticised by the European Green party.

Green MEP Claude Turmes said the Commission was “wasting time flogging the dead horse of hydrogen cars when even the car industry itself has abandoned the dream that the technology will be viable in the near future”.

He urged the Commission to look instead at “enforcing ambitious efficiency standards [on vehicles] or promoting hybrid vehicles”.

Both proposals will now be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers later this year.