On 22nd of November 2018 the supermarket chain Carrefour, one of the largest retailers on European level, has inaugurated the operation of its fleet of 137 hydrogen powered fuel cell materials handling vehicles in its warehouse located in Vendin Le Viel, France, today the largest deployment of this type of vehicles Europe has ever seen. Click here for the presentations at the event. (till December 5, 2018)
This is the result of a collaboration of Carrefour with major industries such as Air Liquide that developed the hydrogen refuelling station and STILL, the provider of the fuel cell vehicles, in the framework of HyLIFT-EUROPE project co-funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).
The HyLIFT-EUROPE project paves the way for a self-sustaining market for hydrogen powered fuel cell materials handling vehicles in Europe by increasing the volumes of vehicles in operation by reaching the ambitious goal of deploying two very large fleets of fuel cell materials handling vehicles, counting more than 200 vehicles in total. The fleet in Carrefour is the largest one developed in this context; a second fleet of 75 fuel cell vehicles was deployed already in 2016 at Prelocentre, a logistics provider for fruits and vegetables. The EHA is supporting the dissemination of the HyLIFT project.