THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In keeping with the buzz over environment-friendly cars, the state received the first hydrogen- powered car that was launched in the country a month ago. Kerala became one of the few states to allow registration for such a car. The Regional Transport Office in Thiruvananthapuram gave registration to a red coloured Toyota Mirai on Thursday.
The car gets the registration number KL 1 CU 7610 and bears a green number plate similar to the one provided to electric vehicles. It has been registered in the name of Toyota Kirloskar which brought the all-hydrogen electric vehicle to the state on an experimental basis. The car is worth over Rs 1.1 crore. However the car will not be seen plying on the road from Friday or be kept for display in a car showroom.
It will instead be kept in a research organisation for studying the first Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) launched in the country. “The government has offered tax exemption on the condition that it will be used for research purposes for the time being. The process is under way to create a network of hydrogen fuel stations,” said a source.
There are some plans to station the vehicle at Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering, an engineering college known for automobile engineering courses in the state at Thiruvananthapuram. The registration was done online without any vehicle tax. The motor vehicles department has collected only the registration fee for the purpose. The transport department and MVD have been looking for a model car long back and a government order was also issued to provide tax exemption.
The car suited the state government’s policy on promoting green-fuels. However efforts to get a hydrogen car was delayed due to the slow growth in creating infrastructure for fuel refilling. “There are three to four parallel processes under way to set up hydrogen refilling stations. But it is likely to take some more time before we see the commercial operations,” said the source.
Travancore Cochin Chemicals (TCC), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) are involved in the process. KSRTC also has major plans to switch to green fuel-based buses. It has announced plans to purchase 50 electric buses and 10 hydrogen buses, besides converting some of the dieselrun buses to electric.
Biju Prabhakar, transport secretary and KSR TC CMD, will attend ‘Clean Buses in Europe,’ an international conference to showcase the latest changes in the transport sector, in Amsterdam on May 11 and 12, for knowing more about the latest in the industry. He said one of the purposes of the visit was to understand the techno-economic feasibility of buses that run on fuels such as hydrogen.
Toyota Mirai
Kerala’s green hydrogen mission