Kick-off for European fuel cell bus project JIVE 2

British Element Energy will take the lead in the cooperation project called JIVE 2, which aims at bringing further 152 fuel cell buses to 14 cities in Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Iceland.

The project runs until late-2023 and is backed by the EU’s Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). The institution calls JIVE 2 “Europe’s most ambitious FC bus project to date.” JIVE 2 is following the previous initiative JIVE that started in January 2017. Both projects together hope to see the deployment of nearly 300 H2 buses in 22 European cities and regions.

In October for example, 30 fuel cell buses and two hydrogen filling stations worth a total funding of 13m euros have been granted to Cologne’s public transport agency RKV through the JIVE project. It contributed 5.6m euros with other 7.4m euros coming through the German federal programme NOW. Once the buses will go into service by 2019, RKV will operate one of the biggest fuel cell bus fleets in Europe.