LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intelligent Energy, Lotus Engineering, LTI Vehicles and TRW Conekt, with funding from the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board, today unveiled a full performance, zero-emissions Fuel Cell Hybrid London taxi.

While the taxi looks and drives like an iconic London black cab, the Fuel Cell Black Cab is powered by an Intelligent Energy hydrogen fuel cell system hybridised with lithium polymer batteries; allowing the vehicle to operate for a full day without the need for refuelling. Capable of achieving a top speed of over 80 mph, it has a range of more than 250 miles on a full tank of hydrogen, refuels in about 5 minutes and produces no emissions other than water vapour.

London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Chair of the London Hydrogen Partnership, Kit Malthouse, who unveiled the zero emissions fuel cell hybrid taxi at London’s City Hall, said, "The black cab is a much loved London icon, but it is also a significant source of pollution especially in the centre of the city. This prototype Fuel Cell Black Cab, which emits only water from its tailpipe, is an exciting glimpse of how hydrogen technology could soon play a vital role in cleaning up air quality for urban dwellers.”

Later this year, Transport for London will start operating five hydrogen-fuel cell buses, and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has committed to working with manufacturers to make all taxis operating in London zero tail-pipe emissions by 2020.

For the Fuel Cell Black Cab unveiled at City Hall, Lotus Engineering has packaged the full propulsion system including the fuel cell engine and has designed control systems to optimise performance of both the fuel cells and electric drive systems. TRW Conekt led the safety analysis programme, including braking and steering systems, and LTI has provided donor vehicles to assist with the structural modifications to the chassis of the taxis.

The first hackney-carriage licences date from 1662 and apply literally to horse-drawn carriages that operated as vehicles for hire. The black cab that most people associate with London taxis was the Austin FX4, introduced in 1959. The model, with many modifications over the years, remained in production until 1997, making it one of the longest running production vehicles in history. The Intelligent Energy fuel cell system has been integrated into the most recent LTI TX4 design, and fits in to the vehicle without intrusion into its internal or luggage space.

“The Fuel Cell Black Cab is a hackney-carriage fit for the 21^st Century and its ever larger urban centres, where the reclamation of good air quality matters hugely to all of us. The LTI TX4 is an internationally recognised and iconic symbol of London, and to put an entirely new fuel cell hybrid electric zero emissions ‘engine’ into the existing vehicle design in such a short amount of time and still deliver performance, refuelling speeds and range, is a fantastic achievement for all the companies involved,” explained Dr. Henri Winand, CEO at Intelligent Energy. “We now look towards the introduction of the first fleet of these vehicles into London for 2012. The launch today at City Hall demonstrates that we are well on course to achieving this goal.”

About:

Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company, with a range of leading fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies. The company is focused on the provision of cleaner power and low carbon technologies.

Lotus Engineering is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy based in Norfolk, UK.

LTI Vehicles is Britain's premier manufacturer of purpose-built taxis, including the 'black cab', the icon of the world's best taxi system.

Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the government.

London Hydrogen Partnership, chaired by Kit Malthouse, recently published an action plan detailing ways to help accelerate the wider use of this zero-polluting, zero-carbon energy in the capital.

TRW Conekt has over 50 years experience in advanced product development, application engineering and validation services.

Editor’s notes:

The Fuel Cell Hybrid Taxi unveiled today is not yet commercially available and is presently undergoing track and road-testing prior to wider deployment. The vehicle will also need to meet the London Public Carriage Office conformity for use as taxi on public roads.

The Technology Strategy Board’s Lead Technologist for Low Carbon Vehicles, Andrew Everett said, “This is a great demonstration of the way that the Technology Strategy Board helps business to be innovative. In providing just under £5.5M towards a programme to develop and embed fuel cell hybrid technology into the London Black Cab we have helped the consortia take steps towards applying this new technology into new markets.”

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6316511&lang=en