Temsa aims to launch a fuel cell coach on the market in 2024 thanks to CaetanoBus – Toyota H2 technology

CaetanoBus and Temsa have announced they are about to launch a jointly-developed fuel cell coach in 2024. The vehicle will be based on the battery-electric Temsa HD12, with fuel cell technology coming from CaetanoBus partner (and shareholder) Toyota.

The nascent fuel cell coach segment is then starting to get some “population”, with Irizar launching at Busworld 2023 in Brussels (that opens on 7th October) its i6S Efficient Hydrogen.

CaetanoBus – Temsa fuel cell coach ready in 2024

The goal of the partners is to enter series production in 2025. A 2-axle version will be the first to be produced, and a 3-axle version will follow suit. According to the information released so far, the vehicles will be able to use both 350 bar and 700 bar hydrogen, thanks to Toyota H2 Dual System technology.

Coach range? The partners claims it’ll be able to run for up to 1,000 km on a single refueling.

CaetanoBus underlines that the company “is very knowledgeable about coach operational requirements once is the manufacturer of the National Express coaches’ fleet for the UK as well as for several operators in Iberic market”.

CaetanoBus is focusing a lot on the segment of fuel cell city buses. In the first half of 2023 96 units were registered in Europe in that segment, vs the 52 of last year (+84%). CaetanoBus places first with 28 units, followed closely by Van Hool with 26. The latter is still leading the market in the period 2012 – June 2023 with 132 registrations. Germany is at the moment the country with the most fuel cell buses in operation (without considering those registered before 2012): 167 vehicles.