Royal Mail and Microcab working together for a hydrogen future
Royal Mail, the postal operating authority for the United Kingdom is working with CENEX, PostEurop, the association of European public postal operators, and FuelCellEurope, the European association of fuel cell developers to develop a universal design specification for hydrogen fuel cell postal vans. Once a draft design specification has been developed Royal Mail intends to share the design brief with all the other European postal operators for input in order for it to be presented to major vehicle manufacturers around the world for consideration and to stimulate main stream construction at relatively affordable prices.
Dr Martin Blake, the Royal Mail’s Head of Sustainability stated, “we clearly see hydrogen fuel cell technology as the future means of small and medium vehicle propulsion in the not too distant future, it is now just a question of seeing which one of the major motor manufacturers can bring such fuel cell commercial vehicles to market in large numbers and reasonable prices first”.
The fuel cell powered Royal Mail Microcab will be used on Birmingham University’s campus as the mail delivery vehicle. The vehicle was launched on 25 March 2009 at the NEC.
