London Police Testing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Scooters

LONDON – Cops are testing hydrogen-fuel-cell scooters in a bid to play their part in helping improve air quality in the U.K.’s capital city.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service is assessing seven Suzuki Burgman hydrogen-powered scooters developed using fuel-cell technology provided by British specialists Intelligent Energy.

Beyond environmental benefits, the Burgmans could represent ideal pursuit vehicles to stem the flood of robberies, smash-and-grab-raids, vehicle theft and acid attacks being carried out by scooter-riding criminal gangs plaguing the city.

The 18-month trial will address various policing roles and could help police determine where the clean technology could be adopted across its fleet of vehicles.

Initially scooters will be used by Police Community Support Officers within the Roads and Transport Policing Command.

Suzuki GB has loaned the vehicles free of charge and their maintenance and fuel costs will be covered by a collaborative project partly funded by the Advanced Propulsion Center, an industrywide coalition of developers and producers of low-carbon propulsion systems.

“Being the U.K.’s largest police service, we constantly have vehicles on the roads and, therefore, it is our aim to make our fleet as clean as we can, whilst maintaining operational capability,” Cmdr. Neil Jerome for Territorial Policing says. “Through collaborative partnerships and innovative testing such as this, we can gain real-life experience of how we can progress our ambition and create a cleaner fleet that will benefit London and the service we provide.”