HyFleet - Decarbonisation of Mobility by Hydrogen Powered Special Vehicle Fleets

Special vehicles for construction, mining, tourism industries or similar are difficult to electrify with pure-battery powertrains. The vehicles are regularly used in difficult-to-access semi-natural areas where noise and exhaust emissions are particularly harmful. Hence, the need to offer zero-emission mobility and infrastructure in this segment is drastically increasing. Actually, there are no series production hydrogen-powered fuel cell special vehicles like Side-by-Side Vehicles (SSV) available; battery-powered alternatives are available but play a minor role because of limited functionalities. Infrastructures are currently not available for refuelling or charging, and the integration of renewable energy is equally challenging. Moreover, there is a lack of suitable and cost-effective components for these special vehicle and infrastructure applications and overall business models need to be further developed. In the HySnow project a first major step towards electrification of special vehicles has been achieved which serves as starting point for HyFleet.