Brussels, 07/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - First hydrogen-buses unveiled in Madrid on Monday at global International Union of Public Transport (IUPT) conference in the presence of Loyola de Palacio, the Transport Commissioner, who led the ceremony. Three hydrogen buses will start operating in Iceland in August since the first service stations have been built to provide hydrogen for vehicles with combustible batteries in Iceland. The Commission has announced that before the end of the year, the EU should be able to launch the first network of hydrogen service stations in the world.
Hydrogen buses are being marketed by the German-US car company Daimler-Chrysler in partnership with the EU through its CUTE project to extend and prove the potential of hydrogen buses. CUTE was launched on 23 November 2001 for 55 months. Nine EU cities are involved in the project as part of a consortium along with Daimler-Chrysler (Madrid, London, Porto, Luxembourg, Hamburg, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Stockholm and Amsterdam). The EU is providing EUR 18.5 million of the total funding of EUR 55 million. The project is being organised in two stages -the development of the necessary infrastructure (like service stations) in the first 24 months and then demonstrations of the system with commercial use of the busses in the cities involved.