Following on Hydra Energy’s April signing announcement of its second heavy-duty fleet customer, Veteran Express Secure Logistics (VEXSL), has announced the completed hydrogen conversion and delivery of VEXSL’s first armoured vehicle to immediately begin return-to-base transport routes in and around Edmonton.
This first-of-its-kind converted truck officially kicks off the VEXSL Hydrogen Project which over the coming years will include conversion of almost all remaining armoured vehicles in the VEXSL fleet and use of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure on the Edmonton International Airport (EIA) land. This will allow VEXSL to carry out its rapidly expanding secure transportation operations across Western Canada at diesel-equivalent fuel prices.
The announcement was made this past Tuesday at Hydra Energy’s Delta-based facility.
“This is not only an exciting day for VEXSL in our quest to immediately lessen our environmental impact in the communities we serve but also for trucking overall,” said VEXSL CEO Cole Fouillard in a news release. “I knew when I first came across Hydra’s solution that this was the transitional step I wanted to take with our existing fleet rather than waiting for expensive, new zero-emissions trucks sometime down the road.”
For Hydra’s hydrogen conversion process, this first VEXSL armoured vehicle had hydrogen tanks and gas handling components installed on the back of the cab and a dedicated, secondary controller installed in the dashboard to control hydrogen flow. This allows the truck to automatically run on hydrogen up to 40 per cent of the time and seamlessly switch to diesel when there’s no more hydrogen in the tanks.
“VEXSL is our second commercial fleet customer and a critical partner in building a western Canadian hydrogen corridor that helps immediately reduce transportation emissions in the region one fleet at a time,” added Hydra CEO, Jessica Verhagen. “Cole’s commitment to the environment and innovation has been a pleasure to be around and his special-purpose fleet continues to highlight the flexibility of our hydrogen-diesel conversion kits. We look forward to converting more VEXSL trucks in a fleet of almost two dozen vehicles.”
