Renault announces hydrogen delivery vans and passenger bus in Master series
Renault will sell three hydrogen buses in the Master series through the joint venture Hyvia. It concerns two delivery vans for freight transport and a passenger bus. The buses will have a range of 250 to 500 kilometers and will be sold ‘by the end of 2021’.
The three buses run on Renault’s Dual Power platform, which pairs a 33kWh battery with a 30kW fuel cell. Hydrogen is stored in tanks of 3 to 7 kilograms, ‘depending on the version’. Based on the shared images, it seems that customers can indicate how many hydrogen tanks they want to place in their vehicle and the stated ranges are the maximums.
The buses get their energy from the batteries or from the fuel cell. For the ranges mentioned, Renault combines the range of the battery with the range of the hydrogen tanks. In the case of the range of 500km, 100km comes from the battery. With full hydrogen tanks and a practically empty battery, it is therefore possible to drive a maximum of 400 km.
Only the smallest van, the Master Van H2-TECH, can drive 500 km with a full tank and battery. According to Renault, this is suitable for commercial transport of goods and has a loading volume of 12m³. The Master Chassis Cab H2-TECH has a larger loading space of 19 m³, but also has the smallest range of the three models: 250 km.
The third bus is intended for passenger transport and is called the Citybus H2-TECH. This bus can carry a maximum of fifteen passengers. This makes the Citybus H2-TECH suitable for urban traffic for companies and public transport, according to Renault. This bus has a range of approximately 300 km.
Hyvia is a joint venture of Renault and hydrogen company Plug Power. The latter says he has more than twenty years of experience with electrolysis and has a network of more than a hundred stations. Together, these stations would distribute more than 40 tons of hydrogen per year.
With Hyvia, the two companies not only want to offer hydrogen vehicles, but also produce, store and distribute green hydrogen. The focus is on hydrogen filling stations, which they want to sell or rent to customers by the end of 2021. Toyota also supplies hydrogen filling stations to customers, so that, for example, companies with many lease cars can fill up with hydrogen at an office.