Vauxhall is going to be trialling a hydrogen version of its Vivaro van with various fleets in the UK, which already has a well selling electric version. The Vivaro Hydrogen is already on sale in Europe as an Opel and costs €71,000 or £59,000. It uses a 45kW fuel cell and a 10.9kWh battery pack, which is located under the front seats. The Vivaro Hydrogen returns a range of 249 miles on the WLTP cycle, around 30 more than the Vivaro Electric.

Vauxhall is planning on launching the Movano Hydrogen in the UK by the end of 2024, with a range of 311 miles. To make this more attractive to fleets, Vauxhall is teaming up with a UK based company, Ryze Hydrogen who will be installing refuelling solutions at “convenient locations” for fleet customers.

Our take on Hydrogen...

There are many reasons why hydrogen looks appealing on paper, but it doesn't take long to realise that the actual realities, complexities and costs involved don't seem to add up. Hydrogen is very difficult to transport safely, difficult to handle and crucially, is not available at home. Data from 2020 shows that 33% of the electricity used ends up powering a hydrogen car, this is 20% for diesel, 16% for petrol and an impressive 77% for EV.

As it stands in the UK right now, only 16 hydrogen refuelling stations are open in the UK.

BMW and Toyota, both of which have been dabbling with hydrogen for many decades are the only major passenger car companies giving it any thought. Everyone else has moved on to EV.