D’Ieteren’s Taxis Verts and Colruyt’s Virya Energy started a pilot project in September 2022 with a Toyota Mirai as a hydrogen taxi to see if this type of drivetrain is a suitable option as the taxi sector in Brussels is forced to electrify by 2025. With half of the year-long test program completed, both companies reflect on their experiences chauffeuring passengers around Brussels on H2 gas.

Belgian VW Group importer D’Ieteren acquired the Brussels-based taxi company Taxis Verts in March 2022, hoping to bring the company into the modern age thanks to integrating with D’Ieteren’s mobility services, including the Poppy car-sharing and Skipr route-planner apps.

Electrifying the green taxis

The second item on the agenda was the electrification of the fleet, with, at the time, only around 7 to 8% of the taxis being electrified. However, the urgency of this electrification strategy was increased due to the Brussels government deciding that all new taxis in Belgium’s capital must be zero-emission vehicles from 2025.

The easiest solution to this problem is to give independent taxi drivers discounted access to D’Ieteren’s VW Group electric models, with charging services provided by EDI (Electric by D’Ieteren). But Taxis Verts also wanted to try out a hydrogen taxi, which has the advantage of quicker refueling and, therefore, more uptime.

A partner for the trial run of this hydrogen taxi project was found with Virya Energy, a subsidiary of Colruyt, which provided the Toyota Mirai to Taxis Verts and access to the DATS 24 (green) hydrogen fuel stations.

32 000 km in six months

In these first six months, the Toyota Mirai taxi traveled over 32 000 km, with an average range of around 400 km per tank – much lower than the 650 km quoted average range, but still enough to last the day.

The specially trained driver refueled more often than necessary, stopping 113 times for more hydrogen. As a result, taxis Verts and Virya Energy estimate a savings of over 6 300 kg of CO2 compared to an average diesel taxi during this period.

Other advantages of the hydrogen taxi, although shared with more common battery-electric vehicles, are the lack of noise and vibrations while driving and no unhealthy fumes from the tailpipe.

Not many fuel stations, and higher fuel cost

Taxis Verts and Virya Energy don’t mention the downsides much in their communication. Still, they hint at the lack of hydrogen fuel stations to efficiently use this type of vehicle. Driving out of your way to reaching a hydrogen pump, usually the DATS 24 station in Halle, negates the advantage of the quick refueling time.

And if we calculate the fuel cost of these first 32 000 km, with 411,46 kg of hydrogen used over this distance at around 10 euros per kg, the total spend would be around 4114,6 euros or 0,1286 euros per km.

If we compare this to Taxis Verts’ comparison of 7,5 liters of diesel per 100 km at a price of around 1,7 euros per liter, the total spent over the same distance would be… 4 080 euros, or about 0,1275 euros per km.

That means that hydrogen is slightly more expensive to run than a diesel vehicle, in addition to a much higher purchase price. Of course, less maintenance is needed, although this probably doesn’t compensate for the higher cost. But with Brussels forcing taxi drivers to switch to zero-emissions vehicles, perhaps a direct comparison with battery-electric taxis is more pertinent…