TfWM REJECT HYDROGEN BUSES
In 2022, West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) won a project to bring 124 new hydrogen buses to Birmingham.
Now that has been cancelled but the full reasoning has not yet been released. Instead, it looks like Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) will revert to battery electric buses that have short range and long recharging times. National Express is the bus company that cooperated on the hydrogen bus project, but has now changed its mind on the move towards hydrogen transport. They ran the 20 hydrogen buses that emerged from the EU/Birmingham City Council project in 2021. Maybe the price of green hydrogen at the Tyseley hydrogen station (£23/kg) was too much. Whoever decided on such a ridiculous price is guilty. Names should be named for getting this so wrong. Germany has £11/kg and China is even less, and such numbers can compete with diesel and with electric charging. That explains why China now has thousands of hydrogen-electric buses. The conclusion again is that Grid electricity used at Tyseley is far too expensive to make competitive hydrogen. Also grid electricity is not green.