The Metropolitan Police Service is helping to reduce harmful emissions in London’s air by launching a trial of hydrogen-powered, Suzuki Burgman scooters.

In line with the Mayor of London’s work to tackle London’s toxic air, the Met’s fleet services are trialling seven Burgman Fuel Cell, zero emission, hydrogen scooters, as part of its operational capability.

The trial will last for 18 months and will enable assessment of their suitability for the various roles the scooters will perform. On a broader scale it will help the Metropolitan Police to understand where this clean technology could be adopted across its fleet in the future.

The hydrogen fuel cell scooters will be used by Police Community Support Officers within the Roads and Transport Policing Command and will be based at Alperton Deployment Centre.

The trial is being run at no cost to the Met, with the loan of the vehicles from Suzuki Motor Corporation. The maintenance and fuel costs will be met by a collaborative project which is being part funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC). Lead partner of this project is British fuel cell technology company Intelligent Energy in association with Suzuki GB and Cenex.

Commander Neil Jerome for Territorial Policing said, “Being the UK’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.

“We are thankful to Suzuki and our partners and look forward with optimism about this trial.  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.”

Suzuki GB managing director, Nobuo Suyama, added, “Suzuki is extremely honoured to be able to showcase the Burgman Fuel Cell and gain valuable feedback from this important trial with the Met. Operational data from the trial will be gathered and used to support Suzuki zero emission vehicle development programmes.

“Deploying these vehicles into service with the Met marks a significant milestone in the extensive development of this ground-breaking technology.  Being able to release the Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell to the Met has only been made possible by the support of a number of technology partners; including Intelligent Energy Ltd, with whom Suzuki has jointly developed the fuel cell unit for the scooter.”