Best practices to get hydrogen fuel cell buses on the road

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Buses (FCBs) offer an opportunity for operators and authorities to move away from fossil fuels. But how to get started with actually implementing this technology into an existing fleet?

This new Knowledge Brief gives an overview of the best practices and lessons learnt from the JIVE and JIVE 2 projects, which deployed 290 FCBs across Europe. As of 30 June 2024, these FCBs have already driven 20 million kilometres and had been refueled with 1.5 million kilograms of hydrogen. This Knowledge Brief is based on the JIVE/JIVE 2 Best Practice Report developed in the framework of the JIVE projects.

The Knowledge Brief outlines a case study of best practices to get FCBs up and running, starting from the project conceptualisation and going the whole way through development and operations. Each part of the process also comes with key takeaways to help future stakeholders ensure best practices and a smoother implementation of FCBs.

The publication of this Knowledge Brief coincides with the wrap up of the JIVE (Joint Initiative for hydrogen Vehicles across Europe) project, which started in 2017 and aimed to advance deployment of FCBs and refueling infrastructure across seven cities in four countries. Check out the video below from the last General Assembly in London for more on this landmark project and its main insights.

JIVE 2 is a sister project which has the same objective but expands to ten cities in five countries. It started in 2018 continues until June 2025. Stay tuned for more soon!

Read the Knowledge Brief!