Hyundai: Government council drives with hydrogen
GOOD EXAMPLE The canton of Zurich is backing hydrogen. Security Director Mario Fehr presented the first hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo as the government council's official vehicle at the Road Traffic Office. This will replace older gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. The cantonal police and the road traffic office consistently promote climate-friendly vehicles. A hydrogen filling station and several fast-charging stations for electric vehicles are also to be built at the Zurich-Albisgütli Road Traffic Office. [...]
This will replace older gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. The cantonal police and the road traffic office are consistently promoting climate-friendly vehicles. A hydrogen filling station and several fast-charging stations for electric vehicles are also to be built at the Zurich-Albisgütli road traffic office.
Significant reduction in CO2 emissions
With a good 600 passenger cars, the cantonal police have the largest fleet within the cantonal administration. For some years now, it has been paying attention to the reduction of CO2 emissions and the promotion of new drive technologies when purchasing new vehicles and training police officers. It now has 46 hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, 23 biogas vehicles and eight electric vehicles. This means that almost 13 percent of the cantonal police's passenger vehicle fleet has new types of drive systems - compared with 3.5 percent of all passenger vehicles in the canton of Zurich.
Pioneer in climate-friendly mobility
This figure is as high as 25 percent for the vehicle fleet of the Road Traffic Office. This includes the vehicle operations for the cantonal administration. Of the total of 40 vehicles, seven are fully electric and one is a plug-in hybrid. Two hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo vehicles have now been added for the journeys of the cantonal councillors. Government Councilor Mario Fehr commented on the fleet strategy of the Security Directorate, which includes the cantonal police and road traffic office: "We are setting an example. In this way, we are helping to develop new technologies and anchor them in the canton of Zurich."
Contribution to the charging infrastructure in the canton
Part of this strategy is that the Road Traffic Office will have a publicly accessible hydrogen filling station and several fast-charging stations for electric vehicles at its Zurich-Albisgütli site. Peter Kyburz, Managing Director of the Road Traffic Office: "So far, there is only one hydrogen filling station in the canton - at the Empa research institute in Dübendorf. A good charging infrastructure is one of the keys for electric and hydrogen vehicles to become established."
Photos: Melanie Duchene
