Asda’s billionaire owners, the Issa brothers, have invested £30m in zero-emission, hydrogen-powered lorry start-up HVS.
The company, which has also won £21m in taxpayer-funded grants, has been trialing and developing a lorry which runs on hydrogen fuel cells at the Mira proving ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, The Times reported.
Looking to begin production by 2026, HVS has said its lorry will have a range of around 350 miles and can be refuelled in the same time that it takes to fill the tank of a diesel lorry.
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This comes as the government has ruled that all new heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) will have to be zero-emission by 2040.
The funding from Mohin and Zuber Issa comes as they look to construct Britian’s first network of hydrogen fuel stations.
The brothers’ EG Group believes a hydrogen lorry fleet can be serviced by seven hydrogen filling stations at Dover, on the north M25, in the Midlands, and around Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, and Glasgow.
Earlier this year, Asda began working with HVS to create a self-driving, zero-emission heavy goods tractor unit which is set to begin trials in 2024.
It is hoped the cost savings of an autonomous lorry will speed up the adoption of zero-emissions vehicles by the freight sector, and reduce the industry’s contribution to climate change.
1 Comment. Leave new
I thought they were electric lorries